La Clique

What to do when your 10th anniversary is nigh, but the format you have been trading on is slowly fading into dated territory? If this was the question that crossed the minds of La Clique producers, the answer seems to be, as a certain other once-quirky-and-original concept would say, keep calm and carry on.

In a show that feels lackadaisical and plodding through gritted teeth, we are treated to a man in a blue bunny suit making jokes about being gay and a black-lace-underwear-wearing (for a few minutes anyway) burlesque artist. Even more depressing is the squeal that comes when the first performer so much as touches a button of his jacket. Today's cabaret consumer wants their pound of flesh. 

It's only when La Clique veterans The Skating Willers step up to graze the noses of front-row punters with pulse-raising roller-skating that we get a glimmer of the old La Clique showmanship and class, and above all the thing Spiegeltent does best: close quarters. It's this frisson of both intimacy and danger however that is missing from most of the acts. Piff and magician-chihuahua Mr Piffles score on originality, and Casus's Emma Serjeant is fabulous—though her sauced-up hand balance doesn't compare to the magic she creates in her regular show Knee Deep.

But overall it leaves you feeling something it seemed would be impossible to ever feel about La Clique when it first came on the scene; that it's no more than a safe bet for a half-decent night out.