Kooza – reviews of Cirque du Soleil's 'spellbinding' show

What you need to know

Cirque du Soleil's touring show Kooza is playing at London's Royal Albert Hall. The world-famous Quebecois troupe, directed by David Shiner, use acrobatics and clowning to present a circus show linked by a narrative.

Kooza tells the story of the Innocent, a clown searching for his place in the world who meets a range of comic characters including a King, a Trickster, an Obnoxious Tourist and his Bad Dog. Runs until 19 February.

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What the critics like

With Kooza, Cirque du Soleil leaves Las Vegas behind and gets back to basics for "two hours of edge-of-the-seat entertainment", says Arifa Akbar in The Independent. It's an intimate, carnivalesque show with touches of burlesque, theatrical ingenuity and acrobatic wonder that presents Cirque, and maybe even circus, at its most spellbinding.

If there's a show to banish any lingering festive lethargy, it's Cirque du Soleil's bright, boisterous "rollercoaster of colour and sparkle", says Daisy Bowie-Sell in Time Out. It contains everything you might expect from the internationally renowned troupe - glitzy production values, jaw-dropping acts and an undeniable wow-factor.

Despite a safety net, the risk factor is palpable, especially with the Wheel of Death, where acrobats jump through a rotating pair of human hamster-wheels, defying gravity and achieving a "surreal, breakneck grace", says Dominic Cavendish in the Daily Telegraph. It's a relief to report that Cirque du Soleil can still send even the most doubting spirits soaring.

What they don't like

Some of the performances are simply breathtaking, but "this overextended, immaculately choreographed evening sometimes leaves you longing for the smell of plain, old-fashioned sawdust", says Clive Davis in The Times. Part of the problem is a confused narrative full of characters with no real purpose, causing the show to sag as if a tent pole had suddenly given way.