The country is going to the dogs, but at least London — including the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — gets a chance to go to the circus.
Those world-conquering Canadians from Cirque du Soleil are back in town with their 2010 show, which is a wafty meditation on evolution. Whether punters are happy to pay £98.90 per stalls seat for a wafty meditation with very little wow factor is another matter.
The show starts promisingly enough, as amphibious life emerges from the swamps and acrobats in bright green turtle-style leotards swing and jump ever higher.
Evolution, however, is given pretty short shrift: after a brief interlude with Native Americans, we’re faced with some vain blokes in Speedos throwing a Frisbee and a very unfunny Italian funny man. There are monkeys and primitive man later on, but director Robert Lepage could surely have shaped the notion of development and progression with greater finesse.
Yet it’s never the preachy moral of Cirque shows that draws audiences, but the sheer jaw-dropping spectacle of the acts — and sadly there is too little here that makes us gasp in wonder.
There are, however, the unicyclists. Oh, those unicyclists! Five astonishing women sit atop preposterously high bikes and flip a succession of bowls onto their heads, insouciantly deploying one raised-from-the-pedals leg to throw. Nothing else comes close to this marvellous sight, although the final segment, featuring a troupe bouncing on bendy bars of no great width, is appealing.
The musical accompaniment is strong throughout and helps to sustain Totem when it flags during increasing amounts of padding.
The show runs until February 26
