"Cambridge Circus’ Captivating Show

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30511, 5 August 1964, Page 13

"Cambridge Circus’ Captivating Show

If by any chance there are seats left for any performance of “Cambridge Circus,” fight for them.

This revue, which opened on Monday night, is all that the debased words on the billboards tell you it is—and then some. Six witty clowns, out of Cambridge gowns, buoyed up by one girl, romp their way through two and a half hours of unrelieved laughter. Their script is sometimes satiris, aways clean, and forever funny. But it is the perfectly-timed business which gives the show its full flavour: each one of the cast is a gifted mimer, each one exudes joie-de-theatre which is the sign of a born entertainer.

There is nothing pretentious about the setting for the fastflowing acts: using a set of rough-hewn rostra, they establish an air of improvised funmaking which is deceptively simple. The deliberately unprofesional staging is part of the youthful charm of the acts: nothing comes between the talents of the performers and their captivated audience. Most of the humour is of no particular time or place, so that a New Zealand audience would never be irritated by topical allusion which esca-

ped them. The objects of satire are the TV announcer, the pop singer, the commercial thriller, the sentimental movie—all of them with catholic significance. Nor is the level in any sense highbrow. There is a take-off .of Oscar Wilde (“How Green Was my Buttonhole”), and there is a demonstration of man’s attempts at self-induced flight

One of the virtues of all 24 acts is the fact that they are never played for more than they are worth: and if the audience is kept in suspense as to the point of a skit, the “surprise ending” always has enough punch to justify the waiting. Backing the group is an adequate 5-piece combo which only occasionally drowned the performers the drummer gave more sound and fury than was needed, for there was never anything which needed covering up. The music was, perhaps, the only weakness in the show.

If you have any curiosity about how the news was presented by the 8.8. C., in the years 8.C., or if you want to know how the M. 1.5 hand-pick their staff, then make any special effort necessary to see these refreshingly vigorous entertainers. For originality, verve and point, they would take a lot of beating.—P.R.S.