Cirkus Inferno at The Civic

By SHELLEY HOWELLS

From their bumbling, unconventional entrance to their contorting exit, Canadian clowns Amy Gordon and Jonah Logan, in the Daredevil Opera company's Cirkus Inferno, deliver surprises, frights and much belly-laugh material.

They play goofball sweethearts who go to see a circus show but, when the show is cancelled, decide to take on the circus props themselves. Glorious slapstick chaos follows.

Logan, a trained pyrotechnician, puts his education to good use with hair-raising - and singeing - explosions at every opportunity. The Combustible Canines routine is hilarious, in that enjoyably silly Looney Toons, Sylvester-the-cat-gets-chased-by-dog way.

Gordon must have had two callings in life: roller skating and the ukulele. Clowning was clearly the only way to combine her passions. You've got to be a brilliant skater to skate that badly, never mind tap-dancing on wheels.

Background racket is provided by a classic cartoon sound-effects tape, right down to tweeting birds after a bump on the head. That they can keep up with the sound effects, no matter how out of control the scene looks, shows just how good the pair's timing is.

With burps and farts and mad contraptions, Acme props, Keystone Cops-type chases, whoopee cushions, explosions, giant mallets and pratfalls galore, Cirkus Inferno is like witnessing the birth of the wacky spawn of old cartoon shows and silent comedy flicks.

The best part of the night was watching the 8-year-old enjoying it so much - roaring with laughter, wincing with pain, and generally getting a blast from raucous old-fashioned stuff.

So grab a kid and go. At not much more than an hour long, the show is the perfect length for twitchy families. But be warned - there's lots of popcorn flying and water spraying around the auditorium, so leave the silk jacket at home. Or avoid sitting near the front. Or the side. Or anywhere near the middle.