“
“The power and skill in these performances is all the more incredible in person and up close”
Suzanne Mackay
5 Stars
Sydney Opera House: Studio
Sydney
10 October – 17 November 2024
The 20th anniversary of La Clique is pure, unadulterated, analogue joy. In a time where technology is all encompassing, where entertainment is presented to us on screens both big and small, and where artificial is the word de jour, La Clique forces the audience to reflect on the power and pure brut force of the human body. It’s also extremely funny, sexy and altogether joyful.
It begins with Canadian performer Tuedon Ariri’s aerial routine set to Jeff Buckley’s Lilac Wine. Atmospheric, seamless and powerful, it incorporates the bathtub as homage to the shows origin, but Ariri repurposes it as her own. The space is intimate but without feeling constrained, Jamie Heseltine’s lighting design is spectacular and the Brechtian stage management perfectly added to the upbeat mood. The opening number is followed by a string of death defying acts from the cast; Tara Boom’s hoop hulaing, popcorn making symphony is so clever, funny and NSFW cheeky, that it expertly hides the enormous skill required to make it look so effortless. Heather Holliday presents the traditional sideshow acts – sword swallowing and fire breathing – in a most untraditional manner. Dressed in an ensemble befitting the most iconic burlesque queen, Holliday moves through the audience, stopping only to swallow anywhere from one to five swords, or seductively loosen her corset. Her final feat is to swallow a neon sword illuminating a perfectly formed thorax as the lights drop. The entire cast needs to be noted – the rest being Mario Queen of the Circus, Lj Marles, Ursula Martinez, David Pereira, and Mirko Köckenberger who provided a genuinely terrifying and beautiful balancing act which must be seen to be believed. I won’t say much more, right from start to finish the performances are breathtaking, I strongly suggest you experience it for yourself.
The power and skill in these performances is all the more incredible in person and up close. It reminds us of the power of humanity, it does what no computer will ever be able to and if nothing else, let La Clique be a wonderful reminder of the beauty that only a human can provide.
Suzanne Mackay, Theatre Now
Photography credit to Daniel Boud.
