Performance: Cirque du Soleil

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

Let's get the big question out of the way first about the show by the visiting French Canadian cosmic circus: what does it all mean?

Its Alegria certainly strives for meaning. It is in every 17/18th Century-themed costume, every extravagant gesture, every lighting change, every accordion swell from its band.

But at the end, a highly satisfactory answer to that question was: Dunno really, just too busy being amazed.

This is a circus with big ideas under its big top. One without tortured animals but with a somewhat tortuous philosophy - though the programme notes lose something in the translation from the original New Age - and a look that occasionally requires that hoary description "on acid."

One fabulous clown scene looked like an old Buster Keaton silent film brought to life - on acid. Other bits resembled an Olympics gymnastic finals - on acid. We'll stop here with the drugs references, as this is very much a family show.

It must be said that the first half hits a few flat patches and can't seem to build much momentum, care of some too-cute clown stuff. But when the acrobats start tumbling across stage-wide trampolines, you wonder if the programme should contain score cards you can hold up.

Or when the firestick man delivers the night's first big don't-try-this-at-home moment and you can feel the heat from his pyrotechnic display six rows back.

The second half started with the resident singer pulling one Dean Barker out of the audience for a waltz - it must be said he goes about very well.

And then, with the arrival of the bungy-trapeze performer, we're truly away and soon feeling permanently awestruck and rather low on the human evolutionary scale.

A performance on shoulder-held bars ending with one single somersault is an absolute gobsmacker (and is best undescribed to keep it a surprise), and two contortionists give whole new meanings to phrases like "head over heels" and "bend over backwards."

The big finish is on the high trapeze. Seven guys resembling Icarus (or is it the other one) play catch with each other high above the net. Time stops for a few neck-straining exquisite minutes.

What does it all mean? A eye-poppingly fab night out.