I first saw the Circus of Horrors on Boxing Day 1995. We sat at cabaret-style tables and I just avoided having my foot sawn off. That was the year before the Buffy the Vampire Slayer started on TV and the undead ruled the ring and people clearly had a taste for things of the night. Now there is True Blood and the Twilight Saga feeding the insatiable hunger for the dark side and this show is as strong as ever.
Back then it was set in a futuristic city, where crazed vampire Doktor Haze was ringmaster of a decrepit circus. He still remains but the production has moved back in time, and also with the times. It is 1920s Berlin and things have more of a cabaret/burlesque feel, mixed with gothic rock opera, circus and freak show. A live four-piece band belts out the music and the narrative of the Ventriloquist - convincingly played by Daniel Endresz - and his evil Bond-villain dummy Schmitt gets a little lost under the noise.
Circus is the strongest element. The aerial acts - including the sensationally glamorous hair-hanger Anastasia IV - fly out above the audience, contortionist Kristina Garcia bends herself into some excruciating poses, and brother Tony Garcia elegantly juggles bouncing balls.
Pole dancing, knife throwing, skeleton acrobatics and a La Soiree-style bath boy blend in while the vile and freaky stuff, concerning piercing, amputations and heavy objects attached to genitalia, comes from the Mongolian Laughing Boy and Captain Dan.
Live and dangerous, here’s a show that, like any of the undead, will go on forever.
Production information can change over the run of the show.
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