The Famous Spiegeltent has been going to Melbourne for more than a dozen years and to Sydney for nearly a decade as a distinctive performance venue. Now this spiegeltent – made in 1920 and one of the original surviving Flemish "mirror tents" – is in Canberra, where the variety show La Clique opened on Thursday night.
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It's the start of a season of music, comedy, acrobatics, magic, burlesque and other acts by a variety of Australian and international performers.
But co-producer David Bates – "I come from Canberra, and so does my wife" – said before the performance that he hoped the season would be much more than a one-off. He hoped to spark enough interest to create an annual or biannual event in the national capital between the Sydney Festival in January and the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April that would be bigger than just the Spiegeltent.
"We want to create a national arts festival," he said.
"I'd like to think there are opportunities in Canberra that are yet to be exploited – in the visual arts, the performing arts, music concerts of all genres."
But that was something for the future. For now, he was thinking about La Clique. With The Spiegeltent fully assembled, the performers were going through their paces in preparation for the opening.
Among them was British burlesque artist Vicky Butterfly who does a "Night Flowers" serpentine dance with LED lights in her costume, in homage to 19th-century dancer Loie Fuller, a pioneer in modern dance and theatrical lighting.
"I'd like to think we work in the same tradition in a different way."
She trained in theatrical design and dance – "I ended up being my own most popular client!" – and, in a career spanning more than 25 years, has worked around the world. This is her first time working in Australia, though she has performed with La Clique in Britain.
The Italian-born British performer Sophie Zucchini has two acts in La Clique, one involving the the "half-burlesque, half-aerial" character Madame de Voila and another featuring a magic trick with a red hanky.
Her mother was her first dance teacher and she had her first professional job at the age of nine, nearly 20 years ago.
Since then, she's frequently worked to learn new skills and has performed in musical theatre, including a stint on the West End in Grease playing Marty, Frenchy and Cha-Cha, working in burlesque and performing in a magic act in Las Vegas with magician Hans Klok and Pamela Anderson ("She's a really smart businesswoman – she's got her head screwed on").
Zucchini also runs a dance troupe, the Hippodrome Honeys, at the Hippodrome Casino in London.
She's performed with La Clique for three years and appeared in it with Bob Downe in Melbourne last year.
La Clique and other shows are on in The Famous Spiegeltent in Civic Square, Canberra until March 14. Bookings: canberratheatrecentre.com.au
