Mesmerising Circus Extreme is perfect for adrenaline junkies and family fun while in Southsea - review
We’ve come a long way from the traditional circuses that I grew up with.
If Cirque Du Soleil has pretensions of elevating circus it to a loftier status, and the ever-popular Circus of Horrors blends burlesque and the macabre, then Circus Extreme is the version for adrenaline junkies.
A live rock band – first revealed playing on platforms suspended from inside the big top when the curtain drops – provide a thumping soundtrack to the series of increasingly out ‘there acts’.
A roller skating duo and Paulinho’s feats of balance and control with his motorbike are impressive enough, but they feel distinctly like warm ups.
A lot of the action takes high above the audience. These acts perform without a safety net, and are noticeably not strapped on to anything for safety. This is death-defying stuff – a slip or momentary lack of concentration could lead to serious injury or worse.
And my word, there are plenty of heart-in-mouth moments throughout this two hour extravaganza. There are a couple of occasions when the crowd audibly gasps as one before bursting into applause.
Spinning from a ribbon, 30ft above the stage with a sword in your gullet – as Lucky Hell does –makes you wonder not just at her skill, but also the biology of how on earth sword swallowers do what they do in the first place.
Laura Miller and her aquatic aerial hoop routine is mesmerising – part bird, part mermaid, it’s dazzling.
Across various routines, these performers defy gravity with pin-point accuracy, a testament to the many hundreds of hours of practice they must have put in.
And of course, there is the clown – Edy – whose hilarious routines provide plenty of audience participation from both children and adults while the crew set the stage for the next performers. My boys howled with laughter at his pratfalls and mugging.
The finale is a high-octane ball-buster, featuring four motorcyclists racing around inside a spherical steel cage – The Globe of Death. Any error of judgement – taking the wrong line, being a fraction too fast or too slow – could be catastrophic. And it requires total faith in your team mates.
When they hit their stride it's quite hypnotic, watching them hurtle around the cage’s interior in perfect synchronicity.
Oh yeah, and then to cap it off – motocross experts start flying through the air above it all, performing incredible stunts as they scrape the inside of the big top.
By the end, we totally had our adrenaline fix.
The circus is on Southsea Common until Sunday April 12 with two shows a day, three on Saturdays. Tickets from £12 to £34. Go to circusextreme.co.uk.