La Clique | Adelaide Cabaret Festival | Adult Show Review

Brace yourself for a wild ride. This bold blend of circus and cabaret is celebrating 20 years of thrills and is only in Adelaide until Sunday 22 June 2025. Strictly for grown-ups! 

Review by Carla Caruso

From the moment we entered the Space Theatre at the Adelaide Festival Centre and spotted a clawfoot bathtub centre-stage, it was clear this wouldn’t be an ordinary night out.

Then front-row guests were handed clear plastic tarps, a hint that things were about to get very wet and wild.

If you think you’ve seen it all before at the Adelaide Fringe, think again. La Clique takes variety performance to a whole new mischievous level.

This critically acclaimed cabaret-style show has arrived just in time for the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, blending circus, burlesque, comedy, music, and vaudeville. If you’re looking for the ultimate parents’ night out, this is it, strictly 18+ thanks to coarse language, nudity, and adult themes.

Though new to me, the show boasts a rich history and strong local connections. Conceived by Victoria-born David Bates in 2004 for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, La Clique originally played in a traditional mirrored Spiegeltent and has since toured globally, evolving with each city. This Adelaide season marks its 20th anniversary. The last local run was in 2012 under the La Soirée banner during the Adelaide Fringe.

While it has moved into a permanent theatre, the show retains its signature intimate, up-close format, amplifying the excitement and often inviting audience interaction.

Among the standout acts was Heather Holliday, a tattooed New Yorker and sword-swallower who memorably mesmerised the audience by sliding a glowing red glass tube down her throat in complete darkness. She followed this with equally dazzling fire-eating, leaving onlookers wincing and wondering how such feats were even possible.

Melbourne’s Tara Boom impressed with a routine featuring Nuttelex, hoops and popcorn, then later balanced parasols to Rihanna’s Umbrella.

Londoner LJ Marles, dressed in a lacy leotard, kinky boots, and a sombrero, almost convinced the audience that Lady Gaga had arrived, before revealing his face and unleashing an aerial straps and pole routine to Applause that made him appear to fly across the stage.

Spanish artist David Pereira brought the house down with a bold and hilarious male striptease involving a heap of shaving cream.

And, of course, the centrepiece bathtub act starred Canadian aerialist Tuedon Ariri in a show-stopping performance. Suspended above the clawfoot tub, she spun with grace before plunging her voluminous afro into the water, delivering a routine that was as breathtaking as it was splashy for those in the front row.

By the show’s end, you’ll be grateful that some people still choose old-world pursuits like contortion over accounting – and making a mental note to finally book that Pilates class.

Editor’s Review: La Clique is an unforgettable cheeky blend of artistry and theatre. Set in an intimate space, there’s boldness mixed with a little bit of shocking. See it for a taste of Fringe in winter.

Please note that this show includes full nudity (with everything on show, both female and male). It is not overtly sexual however, and the nudity is presented in more of a comical way. We put the warning here because it may be confronting for some, and is not the show to take your demure elderly nanna to unless you know she is ok with this. It is strictly not for kids. 

Catch La Clique at the Space Theatre (Adelaide Festival Centre, Festival Drive, Adelaide) until Sunday 22 June 2025. 

For more information and all enquiries please visit the Adelaide Cabaret Festival website.

All photos by Daniella Caruso and Carla Caruso for Play & Go Adelaide. 

At Play & Go Adelaide we make every effort to provide accurate information to the best of our knowledge at the time of publication. We recommend confirming times, dates and details directly before making any plans as details may be subject to change.

As per all our Play & Go reviews, this is not a sponsored post and our review is done completely independently. All photos are by Play & Go (unless specified).

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