The foyer of The Herald Theatre was buzzing with excitement as people read the decree on the scrolls adorning the walls. The Dust Palace had thrown down the gauntlet to us as audience members, and everyone headed towards their seats wondering what they were in for – especially since the dreaded “audience participation” card had been mentioned. [Slight spoiler: FYI in retrospect this ends up not being a biggie in the scheme of things, so fear not]. 

Although I appreciate the eight multi-coloured doors on stage were an ode to the antique advent calendar I couldn’t help thinking that they reminded me of the mystery version of Celebrity Squares. All in all The Dust Palace had cleverly set the tone from the get-go, which gave them the upper hand once ‘the proceedings’ commenced. [More]

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There’s a 19^th century retro flavor in Knock Knock, the frothily entertaining R16 must-share cirque/theatre/cabaret show from The Dust Palace and friends designed to help you wind down to Christmas. There’s a sense of Victoriana about the whole, with Dickensian caricatures, music-hall reference acts, sideshow strongmen, scenes from erotic postcards, and some delightfully fervid send ups. Great performances from everyone, and it definitely conjures a celebratory air that sends you back out into the street with a smile on your face.  

Eight distinctly different acts comprise the show, each hidden behind its own painted door, collectively guarded by a good-natured gendarme (Ash Jones) who wields the pole of fate. The running order is decided by the sequence of door-knocking engaged in by audience members, and the utterly unpredictable individual acts serve up rollicking fun interlaced with fabulously impressive aerial feats nonchalantly performed.

Without giving too much away, I hope,  there’s a beautifully clad  music box ballerina-chanteuse (Vanessa Thompson) with a wonderful vocal range and melancholic mien; a Very Strong Man (Shannon McGurgan) who has dream-like epic encounters with a petite young lady (Eve Gordon) dressed in a gingham dress with and broderie anglaise undergarments. There’s a pair of pole-dancing, rope-climbing fire fighters (Ascia Maybury and Geof Gilson), and extremely dexterous cross-racial Siamese fighting twins (Adrian Smith) who do everything but bite one another, and a fabulous Hoop aerialist (Rochelle Mangan) who also features as a man-eating mermaid in the elaborate tale of the Fresh Faced Cabin Boy (Edward Clendon) with dramatic aerial punctuations elicited through use of rope and mesh, and crises on the storm-lashed ocean added by a squad of marine ninjas (Geof Gilson, Eve Gordon, Adrian Smith, Asica Maybury). A man (Aaron Burr) steps out his door into a surreal world, encountering a trio of high stepping show ponies (Eve Gordon, Edward Clendon, Rochelle Mangan) before being trapped in their world, and a charmingly explicit granny (Eve Gordon) explains how she and the foreman invented the first hand-held device to achieve some very particularly desired results.  

All in all one of the best from The Dust Palace to date, and destined I’m sure for the festival circuit – Adelaide, Edinburgh and beyond.

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