Circus Ronaldo
Barbican Pit
What a relief. For the first 10 minutes of Danny and David Ronaldo's show it looked as if the evening was going to consist entirely of Danny's quickly wearying Mr Bean-ish attempts to light a huge candelabra. Once he had done it, however, things brightened up.
I first saw these Belgian brothers at the London International Mime Festival doing a free foyer gig, but this year's physical comedy, La Cucina dell'Arte, is well worth the ticket price. The stage is converted into a pizzeria and the fun comes from the dazzling tricks and archetypal power dynamic - David authoritative, Danny the fall-guy.
Danny might play the lovestruck twerp, yet he is as agile as his footballing namesake, balancing on a giant rolling-pin, spinning plates and, most spectularly, flipping, juggling and controlling pizza dough as if it is a gravity-defying extension of his angular frame. You never get that in Pizza Hut.
Many of the crowd-pleasing routines are not particularly original, but they are beautifully executed. A gypsy caravan at the rear of the stage churns out automated accordian music and lends an earthy, Fellini-esque feel to the proceedings.
By the end one cannot resist being seduced by this romantic, magical world. If only they had finished by delivering real quattro formaggios, they would have had five stars.
Until 21 January. Information: 0845 1207500.
