Revolver has some major ammunition in its chamber which makes for a thoroughly entertaining evening soaked in atmosphere. The major strengths of this performance which set it clearly a cut above many others are threefold.

Firstly, the atmosphere that Revolver creates is surely the winning drawcard. From the moment we step into the space, we just get the style and intent of the performance that is to come. The description ‘steampunk circus’ may not be illuminating to all, but the combination works as beautifully as coffee and chocolate. Steampunk is actually a narrow genre of science fiction which takes place in a world that is both futuristic and also powered literally by steam, with machinery reminiscent of the industrial revolution. If you picture Barry Sonnenfeld’s tragic Wild Wild West movie (or for those so inclined, Fritz Lang’s 1927 black and white masterpiece Metropolis) then you will begin to get the idea. It is as though the audience steps into a cabaret show that simultaneously takes place in a Wild West saloon, a seedy downtown club in Berlin, the engine room of the Titanic, and under a circus big top. The atmosphere thoroughly permeates the entire show and does wonders to transport us all into the world that is Revolver.

Secondly, the accompanying soundtrack is perfect. The tunes for the show are played live for us with cutting style and groove, and they are immaculately selected. The DJ himself (introduced to us as DJ Machine) sits at his instrument just as the dowdy piano player at that old Western saloon bar – except this is steampunk. Large aluminium tubing connects the top of his head to an enormous machine like structure giving him the (slightly dark) mesmerising appearance of being built into the performance fixture itself. Opening the show (whilst the audience are in darkness) with a darkly cheerful monologue somewhere between Vincent Price and the MC from Cabaret, he then plays perhaps the most striking musical number of the evening as the team makes their bold and memorable entrance onto the stage. The musical selections which then accompany each of the individual acts are wildly appropriate, and a tremendous amount of fun.

Thirdly, the theatricality of the show is outstanding. There has been much attention paid to detail in the construction of Revolver and it pays dividends. Men with clownish make-up and bowler hats statuesquely greet you at the door and move through the audience pre-show. The titular feature of the show is a small revolving platform that is used sparingly, but completely effectively throughout the show. At crucial moments (especially the beginning of the show) the action will parade forward down the raised runway, and then freeze and revolve before our eyes. With a stage setting that is fully 360 degrees (in terms of audience placement), this is a feature that is well conceived and employed. Throughout the interval, the characters wander the audience in character, adding to the totality of the experience and the audience reaction provides a huge endorsement of the overall effect.

There are five characters comprising the performance team. MC for the evening is Miss Magenta Diamond – a tall, sultry figure with alternately aggressive and wheedling tones. This is a strong performance which anchors the evening tremendously well. Beau Champagne (the key figure behind Fuse) is strong and silent – the strongman type of role, but with so much more variety in this steampunk setting (at one stage mounting a platform and cracking two whips and a pistol with crazy abandon). His oft-partner, Sister Mary, performs acts of incredible balance and is constantly swigging from one of many bottles over the evening – thoroughly immersed in her performance. Cutting a fine figure in gold hotpants is the Adonis-like figure simply named Angel, who lends a quiet (not quite innocent) strength and dignity to the ensemble. Finally, as the hound named Black Lips, Maria Dabrowska provides the most commanding and complete performance of the evening – with only her body used to communicate, this is a dark gem of a role.

The acts themselves are (dare I say it) relatively typical circus acts – it is the setting that puts this show in the realm of the wonderful. We see acrobatics, corde lisse, tissu, tightrope, juggling, hula hoops, chains, and a giant spinning wheel, all used to great effect. The tone of the evening is certainly cabaret – teasing and titillating at times, although with such talented artists performing at the peak of their powers, the added onstage raunchiness is nearly not even required (although it certainly adds to the show).

To make this show seriously great, two things need to happen. Firstly – the integration of the circus acts into the theme of the evening, must be even tighter and more complete. If the circus acts were choreographed precisely to the pounding tunes emanating from DJ Machine (instead of those tunes merely being background), this would go a long way for a little effort. If the characters could be developed more in a linear fashion throughout the show so that each act reveals a little more (or less, as may be the case!) of the central performer, then this would add to audience engagement. As it is, the character exposition is done and dusted within the first 20 minutes, and thereafter the audience settles in and witnesses the different acts. Secondly – although this reviewer has no wish to be picky – there were a number of falls on the opening night. Whilst this is clearly an obvious risk with such ambitious routines, they do detract from the otherwise flawless veneer of the atmosphere, and would do well to be eliminated.

With central tables and back row seating available, together with the invitation to bring your drinks with you, this show represents a raucous night’s entertainment – perfect for a group, or (should you want to run the risk of taking part in the fabled ‘kissing contest’) a good date night. A tremendous show. 

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Watching men with beautiful arms and snug trousers wander about looking slightly officious and important is never a bad way to start an evening of circus art.

DJ Headcase played some magnificent cuts – almost all of which I have on my very own playlist (weird!). He looked like a degenerate alien cowboy busting some sneaky moves in the background, including playing the saxophone on a beer bottle in immaculate time with the music.

His mix kept the atmosphere darkly upbeat and energetic. Patti Smith’s rendition of Gloria was perfect for Sister Mary Sweetie Darling’s aerial entrance, more raging rag doll than effortless grace but engagingly so. Beau Champagne crawled up and down the support framework as a spidery counterweight for her but his sinuosity didn’t distract from Sister Mary’s gothic display of strength and agility. She really owned the show. She played the demure bad girl effortlessly and was much more erotic than the much more obvious and comic Black Lips.

Black Lips’ dance was beautiful to watch, her body stretchy and sharp when she wasn’t playing the overly contrived sexual predator and Angel was mesmerising as the Golden Boy – definitely something to be said for an angel in a giant steel halo and gold hotpants…

The corde lisse – usually performed on a sheath of soft cotton or silk – was a suitably masochistic rope (slightly frayed) that would keep a ship tied to port.  This was my favourite part, with Beau winding Sister Mary up the rope to join him at the top before spinning her madly suspended only by her wrist.  There was a sense of security and reassurance between these two in their interactions, whether he was lifting her to stand on his head or watching her teetering on a tightrope towards him. A sometimes desultory and disinterested care but a care nonetheless.

Dunedin is a funny little town when it comes to audiences – you can never tell who will turn up to any particular show. The people in the crowd at Sammy’s, with its beautiful stage and tawdry house, were of all sorts and demographics and took some time to get warmed up. The kissing competition got off to a slow start as well but the winners richly deserved their prize as the cowboy swept his woman off her feet to get her on stage and again (multiple times) when she got there. 

A lot of what I read about Revolver had prepared me for a deeply erotic, intense show. It wasn’t. It was a fun circus show with an undercurrent of darkness, largely perpetuated by the music. The show wasn’t as slick and polished as I had expected, and the troupe looked a little tired, which is perhaps unsurprising given they’ve been touring for ages. The hour and a half slipped by very quickly though and Revolver definitely had all of your favourite circus ingredients, with some steampunk spice for flavour and some sparkles for, well every circus act should have sparkles.

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Watching men with beautiful arms and snug trousers wander about looking slightly officious and important is never a bad way to start an evening of circus art.

DJ Headcase played some magnificent cuts – almost all of which I have on my very own playlist (weird!). He looked like a degenerate alien cowboy busting some sneaky moves in the background, including playing the saxophone on a beer bottle in immaculate time with the music.

His mix kept the atmosphere darkly upbeat and energetic. Patti Smith’s rendition of Gloria was perfect for Sister Mary Sweetie Darling’s aerial entrance, more raging rag doll than effortless grace but engagingly so. Beau Champagne crawled up and down the support framework as a spidery counterweight for her but his sinuosity didn’t distract from Sister Mary’s gothic display of strength and agility. She really owned the show. She played the demure bad girl effortlessly and was much more erotic than the much more obvious and comic Black Lips.

Black Lips’ dance was beautiful to watch, her body stretchy and sharp when she wasn’t playing the overly contrived sexual predator and Angel was mesmerising as the Golden Boy – definitely something to be said for an angel in a giant steel halo and gold hotpants…

The corde lisse – usually performed on a sheath of soft cotton or silk – was a suitably masochistic rope (slightly frayed) that would keep a ship tied to port.  This was my favourite part, with Beau winding Sister Mary up the rope to join him at the top before spinning her madly suspended only by her wrist.  There was a sense of security and reassurance between these two in their interactions, whether he was lifting her to stand on his head or watching her teetering on a tightrope towards him. A sometimes desultory and disinterested care but a care nonetheless.

Dunedin is a funny little town when it comes to audiences – you can never tell who will turn up to any particular show. The people in the crowd at Sammy’s, with its beautiful stage and tawdry house, were of all sorts and demographics and took some time to get warmed up. The kissing competition got off to a slow start as well but the winners richly deserved their prize as the cowboy swept his woman off her feet to get her on stage and again (multiple times) when she got there. 

A lot of what I read about Revolver had prepared me for a deeply erotic, intense show. It wasn’t. It was a fun circus show with an undercurrent of darkness, largely perpetuated by the music. The show wasn’t as slick and polished as I had expected, and the troupe looked a little tired, which is perhaps unsurprising given they’ve been touring for ages. The hour and a half slipped by very quickly though and Revolver definitely had all of your favourite circus ingredients, with some steampunk spice for flavour and some sparkles for, well every circus act should have sparkles.

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To begin with there’s a rouge-cheeked, goatee-sporting, leather-clad, kilt-wearing kind of punk-burlesque weirdo with a mohawk coif, and he’s just the DJ (DJ Red Bird Jn.).  Then there’s a couple of other strapping fellows wearing bowler hats and waistcoats, loitering about as the capacity Concert Chamber crowd gets their refreshments and sit at their tables – some of which are on the stage by the formidably cog-wheeled entranceway upstage.

Before long a svelte vamp in a red dress and black heels, with a cigarette and a margarita, stands statue-still before an old-school microphone and a sign that reads ‘$1 for a ditty’ on the titular revolve stage at the end of the catwalk.  When the dollar is paid, the DJ turns the large red crank that sets her off crooning – like the world’s most sophisticated music box – all manner of cabaret classics from Holiday, Porter, Berlin, Waller and maybe a Gershwin or two.

All this before the show even starts, which it eventually does with the arrival of the Mistress of Ceremonies, one Magenta Diamond, whose initial party trick is pulling things out from her sleek long black dress.  Her secondary one is hammering a four-inch nail into her nostril to her theme song, Airbourne’s ‘Diamond in the Rough’.  As the evening progresses Ms Diamond will demonstrate, in her consummate airhead/dominatrix manner, she is no-one’s two-trick pony.

The first act proper is scruffy ragdoll mascot girl Maria Blacklips, flinging her limbs about with dynamic flair, again engaging the frequently utilised revolving stage.  She is follow by one of the waistcoat fellows, the bearded one, ‘Beau Champagne’, who takes us through a round of deft and nimble, if wholly perfunctory, trapeze manoeuvres to a pumping dubstep soundtrack.  Next the other chap, ‘Zach Washer’ with the frilly waistcoat, juggles a number of skittles, dropping a good many but managing enough to succeed in coming over as a very promising juggling student on work experience.

I note that by this time not a great deal of comedy per se has occurred. Almost as if in response, Ms Diamond appears again, now with a pair of tights and a staple gun up her dress.  Her shock-factor antics are very well matched by her sassy banter, both effusively sexual and aggressively stern.  She’s followed by a red-haired Tissu artiste in sturdy lingerie with black gothic floral tights, who’s name I didn’t catch, causing a few gasps with her bold aerial tumbling. 

After the meat raffle – yes, that happens – Miss Nakita Spooky, the singer from the beginning, concludes the first half in a cloud of pathos, with an ironically choreographed delivery of Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Round Midnight’.  It occurs to me that the dry-ice machine serves well to provide a ‘smoky’ atmosphere, lending authenticity to the old-time burlesque trappings in these modern times of smoke-free indoors. 

In the second half Magenta ups the ante in a new baby-doll outfit, long black pigtails and black knickers with white tassels across the cheeks that she takes some wicked pleasure in displaying for our entertainment.  Her hula-hoop routine is slightly disrupted when it flies into a front row audience member but she recovers well, and it’s her only acrobatic mishap of the night. 

Overall her hoop act is a winner, seeming to defy certain physical laws, but the real trouble starts with the poorly chosen male audience members to assist in her crowning human quoits stunt.  One’s an uncooperative drunken dick, one’s an overenthusiastic weirdo; finally her third choice, ‘Barry’, gets her through the last bit with some vague sense of renovated dignity.  This ordeal, while greatly amusing to many, does contribute to the show running almost half an hour overtime (and making me late to my ten o’clock).

Next up, Beau’s back with a pseudo-raunchy cowboy stockwhip number.  Then Nakita’s back in a Charleston dress, looking even more dishevelled as she sings forlornly while Blacklips dances in her potently winsome style on the flyrope.  After that, a kissing competition, because “What kind of a show would we be if we didn’t have a kissing competition?”  Three couples work each other’s lips and tongues over hard for the grand prize: a bottle of vodka. 

Then it’s Zach again. In golden trunks and glittered up for a giant hoop act that truly astounds, he entirely redeems his earlier juggling mishaps.  Finally Ms Diamond takes it home one last time with an incredible all-but-nude aerial chain routine, and we’re spent. 

All in all Revolver is a remarkable, raunchy and risibly rude night at the cabaret circus.  

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NZ Cabaret shows seem to present performers more than once in their programmes, which can either hint at a lack of content or make a performance a cohesive package rather than a lineup. The latter is the only just the case for Revolver, though it does highlight the performers with one excellent act and one not so… 

Downstage is an awkwardly casual venue for Cabaret, with Fuse Circus clustering tables on stage as well as block frontal seating for most of the punters. Magenta Diamond struggles to find her MC way in the first half, after opening with a generic ‘burlesque’ shimmy of a routine ending with the now expected reveal of boobs with pasties. Her second half routines are magnificent and much more skilled and engaging.

Tom Beauchamp continues to put together a cast of skilled circus performers, and whilst his performative presence is powerful, it is arrogant and his acts themselves lacklustre. His trapeze act a demonstration of skill and his cowboy act dreary – he might as well have just lip-synced for all the excitement he created.

Jessica Judge’s first Tissu routine is made up of a series of poses, repetitive rhythmic choices and not a lot else. Her later routine with Tom on ropes is far superior, with spectacular execution and superb spinning; if only the difficulty in their acro-balance partnering was not so telegraphed.

Nikita the Spooky is the first real excitement in the first half: her smoky sexy voice matched with her twisted suicidal onstage character is mind-blowing. Her later duet with Maria Dabrowska is a super treat.

Zach Washer creates an impressive aura during his juggling and Cyr Wheel acts, with shades of Rocky Horror (a Creation). Though his skill fails to consistently deliver, he certainly imbues the stage with expectant awe and power.

Maria Dabrowska’s onstage persona Black Lips opens with forgettable generic contemporary dance/hip hop choreography, but is saved by her supreme arm articulation and energy. Maria’s continued subtle antics on stage throughout the show fuse the often disparate acts, with Magenta Diamond threading the performance and audience together, with her banter and knickers-flashing!

Revolver’s cast creates a heady atmosphere of mystery and intense excitement. Whilst the unbalanced content and performances of the first and second halves make the Circus unconvincing, supreme skills and excellent personas deliver an hilarious night out.  

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