Circus Trick Tease [FringeTIX]
Circus Trick Tease @ The Ringbox
9:00pm, Tue 24 Feb 2009
This is the first time I can recall this venue, The Ringbox, being part of The Garden’s cluster of performance venues; it seems to have inherited some seating from one of the previous venues, varnish on the seats peeling and hard under-arse. Still, in good weather, this’ll remain a pretty bloody good spot – and it appears to be the only venue set up for the circussy goodness that has been missing so far this year.
Circus Trick Tease opens in pretty much the same way as every other circus show I’ve ever seen – tumbling, feats of strength & balance, and little more than cursory attention paid to the audience. That soon changes with Mr Plonk’s sensitive new-age strongman song, following which he manages to lift four women (plucked from the audience) at once. This raises the ire of his “partner” (and the leader of this circus), Tinkle; they fight – then make up in lewd and creative ways – in some of the funniest shadow-play I’ve ever seen… all while their imported talent Ghazanfar “amazes” us with his lame deadpan “tricks”.
Passions between the trio heat up, with both Plonk and Tinkle falling for Ghazanfar – who, at this stage of the performance, has done little more than provide a (sterling!) comic foil to their hot / cold sojourns. Plonk’s pursual of Ghazanfar leads to some wonderful feats of strength; Tinkle’s advances result in some incredible leading to a cheeky display of balance (Ghazanfar balances, on his head, atop an upturned wine bottle perched upon a stack of boxes high above the ground. Spectacular!) The trio collaborate for one final balancing act – all standing tall atop each other’s shoulders – before the love triangle disappears, the boys fleeing the stage, Tinkle left sobbing on the ground & throwing unneeded condoms and flyers for the show at the crowd as they depart, begging us – through her tears – to tell others about the show.
She gets her second wind, though – for some five minutes after the show finishes, the three of them maintain their rage out into The Garden – cue confused looks from other Garden Dwellers, and massive grins from those who’d just been in the show.
Let’s cut to the chase here – Circus Trick Tease was fucking brilliant fun. It’s got enough circussy bits to keep you wowed, more than enough laughs to keep you entertained, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. And the cast… well, they’re just fantastic. I chatted with The Boys later that evening, and they were wonderfully humble and seemed genuinely surprised that someone would actually thank them for their efforts.
Good people, great show – what’s not to like?