THEATRE REVIEW: LA SOIRÉE, Perth, 29 Jan, 2015

Shane | 30 January 2015 | Reply

THEATRE REVIEW: LA SOIRÉE, Perth, 29 Jan, 2015
Fringe World presents LA SOIRÉE
Perth, Thursday, 29 January, 2015
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
10/10

La Soirée is circus, Jim – but not as we know it.

Here the clowns dress as Charlie Chaplin on rollerskates before stripping down to a ballgown and juggling on a pogostick. The magician does a burlesque show before ‘discovering’ her last vanished handkerchief in a most intimate place. The acrobats are English Gentlemen who hoist each other aloft using bare (bear?) strength alone before stripping down to their Union Jack briefs. The aerial ballet artist looks like he’s come from a Chippendales revue and dances on ropes in and out of a bathtub, splashing the audience with water. The contortionist is an ex-Norwegian tennis pro who squeezes his double-jointed body through a 12-inch AND a 10-inch tennis racket in a hilarious segment that proves impossible to tear your eyes from even as he dislocates parts of his body right in front of the crowd.

Throw in some awesome life-sized puppetry dancing to a disco and soul revue, the cutest hula-hoop and skipping-rope artist ever, a trapeze duo who do things with ping pong balls the Thai have never considered, and The Sexual Gentleman – who is everything you’re not thinking right now, in two of the funniest skits in the show – and you have an evening of bawdy, raunchy, hilarious adult fun.

La Soirée is entertainment at it’s boldest and best: pure comedy, pure strength, pure skills. If you only see one show at Fringe World this year, make it this one.