Surely once you've seen one rope trick you've seen them all? Not so; the Dust Palace keep their impressive acrobatics fresh with entertaining storytelling.
While Dust Palace virgins will gape at their spinning arabesques in this olde-worlde-shabby-attic cabaret show; devotees will enjoy the small yarns they're spinning at the same time. It's natural for a sailor to be climbing a rope (a polished Edward Clendon) while the silks are amusingly incongruous when wrapped around a bawdy granny (chameleon director Eve Gordon).
While cabaret tables are impossible in the Herald Theatre - and some acts feel squashed on the small stage - the steeply raked seats allow the audience the rare opportunity to be at eye level with aerial performers a storey or two off the ground.
After a slow prologue, we see a grab-bag of eight surprise vignettes - the pole, net, tumbling and hoop are seasoned with vaudeville slapstick, drama, dance, song and a small pinch of nudity. Tempo and mood are nicely varied for those of us with short attention spans, and the comedic sketches work particularly well.
In a slight nod to Christmas, toys come to life Nutcracker-style. We see chisel-jawed Russian soldiers and a rag doll with a secret (the racial politics sail rather close to the wind). A chanteuse with muddy feet - feet of clay? - is the calm within the whirlwind. Rochelle Mangan's hoop work is beautifully assured, and Cathy Pope's costumes are clever takes on the traditional.
