Super Sunday at Brighton Dome - Review

Super Sunday (which runs until December 27) continues Brighton Dome’s recent tradition of providing something a little more interesting than your standard thespian festive fare and in the absence of ex TV soap stars and men in tights, delivers a breathlessly physcial, fun and original slice of circus.

The goofy tone of the production is set in the opening minutes when the six acrobats of the Finnish Race Horse Company, step out of legless comedy horses to reveal they’re trouser-less and proudly strutting about in their underpants.

Shorts are swiftly added and the noisy family audience is treated to some stunning and wildly inventive gymnastics and daredevil antics. Seats tremble as they hurtle through the air to a banging soundtrack which is loud and bassy enough to make a boy-racer blush.

Amid the tumbling, the headstands, the break-dancing and gravity-defying moves, there’s plenty of slapstick and the odd mildly bawdy moment, which combined with the constant threat of injury should be more than enough to keep the Tik Tok generation off their smart phones for the duration.

But for all the bottom-shaking and posturing, the flying Finns are astonishingly athletic and move with considerable style and élan.

The brawny, but ripped performers, who are by and large beardy and fairly hairy, spend a large part of the second half unencumbered by clothes on their top halves, which could be of some interest to older members of the audience

Notable sequences include monkeying about with ninja nunchucks and a fairly substantial mallet, the scariest sea-saw shenanigans you’re ever likely to witness, and performing ridiculous mid-air moves on trampolines the size of an average Brighton flat.

The wheel of death sequence is as fun it as it sounds, and for good measure features the lunacy of strapping one member of the troupe to the outside of one of the wheels - in cling film.

An original and lively show where the gasps are as frequent as the laughs.

By Steve Holloway