Two Cents: La Ronde (Strut & Fret)
Australia’s world-touring ringmasters of intoxicating spectacle and hedonistic joie de vivre since 1997, you can always depend on Strut & Fret (Blanc de Blanc, Limbo) if you’re due for a show that leaves you giddy and aflame.
After a lap of Adelaide and Auckland, Strut’s new treat La Ronde is again lighting up The Grand Electric in Sydney, with an international troupe performing bold feats with brassy attitude via impossibly sculpted, glowing bodies that soar and whirl through higher planes and dazzling shafts of light. This is physical entertainment dipped ever so lightly in the debauched, a popular cocktail of risky and risqué.
A disco ball the size of a small planet is what guests – seated in the round, of course – see first. (Apparently it’s the largest in Australia.) A sparkling token of the larger-than-life party to come, it’s followed by a procession that’ll make you wish you didn’t quit gymnastics in primary school, and hopefully inspire you to be just a little more #brat, and a little more brave.
There’s Moscow’s swol ‘wunderkind’ Syvat and the gorgeous Zoë tumbling through space; Miranda Menzies, fresh from Gatsby at the Green Light at the Opera House, spinning to a blur while suspended from her titanium-strength bun. America’s Nate the klutzy drag clown juggles in high heels on a pogo stick; Bulgaria’s Maria kills to a Kiss track in high red-leather boots on a BDSM-coded chain; and super-ripped Russian Danik hops upside down on a single hand along a teetering scaffold. In one of several numbers, returning Strut songstress Rechelle sits astride that enormous disco ball belting Norah Jones’ ‘Turn Me On’.
It must be said (I often do): being merely ‘impressive’ is boring as hell. With a lot of other circus-led shows, I find myself growing darkly sour when asked to applaud yet another demonstration of physical prowess. After the umpteenth death-defying stunt, you begin to wonder, so what? One’s mind can only be blown so many times in short succession. ‘Impressive overwhelm’ inevitably sets in – an overstimulation of monotony in muscular excellence.
What sets Strut & Fret shows apart is their sultry infusion of playful cabaret; an insouciant ‘sexy and I know it’ swagger you can’t help but lift an admiring eyebrow to, especially when the crowd gets in on the fun. Some performers in La Ronde are better at this debonair touch than others; none is better than LJ Marles. In an act that effortlessly mixes aerial with grace and seduction, licking up a heart-shaped red lollipop all the while he’s spinning, LJ is that proud prince of a performer that would never stoop for audience approval – he’s too busy enjoying himself, and too self-assured to need it – but he always, always gets it.
If you’ve seen a Strut show before, you know what you’re in for. If you haven’t, sort yourself out a sugary libation and enjoy the ride.
La Ronde
Strut & Fret
The Grand Electric, Surry Hills
Until 24 May 2026
