Live music a highlight as circus acts twist and turn

A striking start, but that first leap towards visual theatre isn’t sustained. Instead, Lexicon floats into a loose fantasia, built whimsically around tricks in a way that doesn’t invest the spectacle with much dramatic coherence.

Still, the best moments boggle the eye. Some routines draw slapstick effortlessly from flirting with failure: the juggler who keeps setting his pants on fire with flaming batons, and a terrific unicycle act that geekily teeters its way to glory – if you’ve ever wanted to see someone change outfits while riding one, or unicycle over a row of upturned wine glasses, now’s your chance.

Aerial displays are frequent, some are stunning. There’s a wild static trapeze act and a stately one on bungee cord, as well as aerial hoop, rope, and more.

Perhaps the show’s too crowded with them, though: they can be too short, too conventional to maximise expressiveness and impact, and flimsy stage business sometimes intrudes to cover setup time for each new apparatus. That isn’t ideal, and it’s a bit surprising: director Firenza Guidi has walked that tightrope flawlessly in the past. (The company’s last show in Australia, Bianco, is a case in point.)

Even so, it’s hard to have a bad time. Between music and a mad assortment of physical marvels, Lexicon has more than enough to entertain the punters. Beyond the bums-on-seats factor, though, you wonder if there’s a genuine aesthetic reason it’s been programmed.

Certainly, if you expect the circus of today to deliver an immersive theatrical event – one that augments ensemble acrobatics with histrionic discipline or tight choreography – you might be mildly disappointed.