Review: James Thiérrée - Invention, Illusion, Imagination

If the clocks going back filled you with winter blues this week then we prescribe you must get yourself to Sadlers Wells sharpish. For a reasonable amount of quids you can get yourself a seasonal dose of magic and wonderment which will fix you right up. James Thiérrée's "Au Revoir Parapluie" is just what you need.

Alright, so it's more expensive than a happy pill prescription from the GP or a map or your local park but this show almost defies our reviewing skills. There is an umbrella in it... well, more of a parasol, but what it's all about is really peripheral. It's an odd, elusive narrative but totally subsumed in a magical contemporary circus of music, song, mime, dance, acrobatics, aerialistics, comedy, juggling and boundary defying theatrics that only leave you smiling.

Thiérrée is a man who can make his heartbeat escape his chest. Whose family turn into water waders. Who can make a rope tree home, ride a rolling rocking chair, dry out on a tightrope, have a monumental play fight with bundles of weeds, rip up the floor and bring down the house with shuttlecocks.

Words just won't do. Go see this. Goodbye, cruel world. Hello, Goodbye Umbrella!

James Thierree's "Au Revoir Parapluie" is running at Sadlers Wells until 10 November. Book online or call 0844 412 4300. He's Charlie Chaplin's grandson: FACT.

Image by Richard Haughton