La Soirée has returned to the Spiegeltent as a part of this year’s Brisbane Festival due to popular demand, and I can understand why. From the moment you enter the exquisite venue the atmosphere is electric with driving carnival music, building anticipation for what is truly an eclectic night at the theatre. This is circus, cabaret and risqué fun that epitomises all that is great about the Festival.
The show commences with The English Gents (Denis Lock and Hamish McCann) engaging in beautiful but seemingly impossible acrobatics, leaving the audience in a stunned silence. The sheer strength and control displayed in this act is awe-inspiring and worth the price of admission alone. Be that as it may, the quality continues with the hilarious Mario, Queen of the Circus – Clarke McFarlane illustrating that if you’ve seen one juggler you haven’t seen them all. His juggling timed beautifully with Queen’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ was a highlight for me.
Sarah Ward is a composer and cabaret singer and as Yana Alana, she entertains the audience with brilliantly vulgar songs and encourages them to join in, no doubt thankful they left the kids at home. This feeling surely continues once Susannah Martinez takes to the stage with her disappearing hanky trick, leaving everyone amazed and a little shocked at this woman’s unusual talent.
Gerry Connolly’s Queen Elizabeth is an amusing addition, especially with his brilliantly timed and irreverent ‘Formal’ welcome to the show. The show concludes with ‘Bath Boy’, David O’Mer, whose antics in and around the bathtub can only be described as hot!
La Soirée is what festivals are all about. A smorgasbord of talent delivered in the sublime Spiegeltent in the heart of the festival precinct. Get there early, take a few drinks in with you and after the show, stay late! If only all soirées were this good.
Rating: 4 ½ stars out of 5
La Soirée
The Speigeltent, Southbank
7 – 28 September
Brisbane Festival 2013
www.brisbanefestival.com.au
7 – 28 September
Photo by Prudence Upton
