For anyone whose formative years were the mid-1970s, this "rock `n' roll" circus will be comfortably familiar. Leather and chains, scrambled electric guitars, high boots, spray-on trousers and crucifixes abound, as the ring-master, Doktor Haze, struts through storms of dry ice, orchestrating his team of vampires, nuns and skeletons and haranguing the audience at the Black Box.
This is "new circus", or "retro circus" perhaps, directed by Pierrot Bidon, the creator of the French circus company, Archaos, which, with Cirque Soleil and Cirque Plume, has been responsible for recasting the traditional elements of circus in a contemporary mould. There are a few scraps of plot in this show, referring to a futuristic dystopia, in which Dr Haze is the ruler of Sin City, but these never get in the way of the series of feats, from limbo dancing through flames, to high-wire motor cycling, sword swallowing and body mutilation all enacted in the chamber of horrors, to the accompaniment of heavy metal.
While the humour is dated and undeniably puerile, and the set is pure Glastonbury (cobwebs and wattles), the exuberance of the performers is infectious, and it's a lot of fun. But as the Mike Oldfield tinkling and the grinding bass guitars fade, what lingers in the memory is the superb, soaring trapeze sequences, demonstrating that the staples of "old circus" can still steal the show.
Runs until Sunday. To book, phone 1890-575655