THEATRE REVIEWS

it's never easy to write about the Kneehigh Theatre because you never know quite what you are going to get from them. This time it is an adaptation of a surreal novel by Angela Carter about a Moscow circus that has some very strange charactors performing there. A girl with wings and a man with a pig are for starters. There are "hangers on" who defy an accurate description. Add a love sick American theatre critic intent on getting to know the girl with wings and you get a high flying assortment of goings on.

This is a screwy experience set at the end of 1899 and falling into 1900. The production lost its way somewhere in the adaptation by Tom Morris and Emma Rice where it is never quite there and tends to rely on Kneehigh Theatre's gimmicks and strangness which usually work. There will be those in the audience who will get a great deal of pleasure from what is put in front of them, but there will be others who will not.

The actors still do their stuff, but you may ask yourself why? This is an attempt to please today's generation at the expense of good taste and theatre craft. It is an experience that you may wish to try, but you may be offended. © BA

“Nights at the Circus” is in Leeds on the 21st February until the 4th March, 2005 then continues on tour. Council car parking charge £1 from 5.30pm until 10pm. This is now a No Smoking theatre.