La Clique is a global phenomenon. This Australian-born, Olivier Award-winning show has sold out tens of thousands of shows around the world, and reinvented variety for the 21st century with its unique combination of sass, sparkles, staggering acts, and eye-popping stunts. La Clique is not just a show — it’s a sensation. It’s the hottest, wildest, raunchiest (and wettest) show you can bring a date (but also your mum) to.
Created by David Bates, La Clique was born at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2004. It has subsequently gained international acclaim. This is the original and trailblazing Spiegeltent cabaret show that has been the torchbearer for nearly 20 years.
David Bates spoke to Glam Adelaide about La Clique, its creation and what drew him to the performing arts as a career.
“I was lucky enough to come from a musical family, even though I was born in Western Victoria on a sheep farm. My mother’s family in particular was very musical, so I learned the piano and started to play the piano professionally when I was in my teens in theatre restaurants and cabarets in Canberra. That led to playing in bands, in theatrical cabaret and jazz bands, and I ended up in Edinburgh at the Edinburgh Fringe and saw the Famous Spiegeltent. So it was through the Famous Spiegeltent and being a jazz musician I guess is how I came to create La Clique.”
We asked David where the idea of La Clique stemmed from.
“I’ve been producing the Famous Spiegeltent in Edinburgh since 1996. We were a stage for lots of other performers, but mainly music and cabaret which is my thing. So the Famous Spiegeltent was well established in that way, and then we used to always have a late-night club called Club Spiegel. It was out of Club Spiegel that I saw lots of artists, fantastic variety artists of all kinds, who had really fantastic five to seven minute acts but no show context to put it in. So one year we accidentally decided just to put a title on a whole lot of these artists and call the show La Clique. It was sort of at that point of time where there were a whole heap of variety artists, and especially young circus artists, that were starting to emerge. So we put a collection of those people together. They weren’t interested in being in Cirque du Soleil; they were interested in generating their own work and their own creative ideas. And they all had a particular attitude that wasn’t a mainstream attitude. So I guess that’s the best way to describe how La Clique was born.”
A theatrical phenomenon, La Clique has toured the globe, bringing its unique and inspirational night of live entertainment to London, Edinburgh, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Brighton, Singapore, Montreal and New York.
La Clique has now been running for twenty years, so we asked David if he ever imagined that the show would still be going stronger than ever and getting world-wide recognition?
“I didn’t at all; the whole evolution of it was a fluke. I don’t take any credit for reinventing variety. Variety was on television, although it went through a period where it sort of died, and then the intimate recreation of variety in the Spiegeltent has really found a new world. It’s as fresh as the artists’ ideas that are in the show. So that’s why it keeps reinventing itself and keeps being fresh.”
The critics have been unanimous in their praise: amazing, hilarious, exotic, erotic, stunning, mesmerising, breathtakingly skilled…La Clique is a rare and unmissable treat.
La Clique will be playing in the Space Theatre over the final week of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival .
“The lineup for Adelaide will be a wonderful mixture of veteran and new performers. One of our acts was in the show twenty years ago, which is really special. It’s a very multicultural cast, so you will see acts from all over the world. It’s got everything. You’re likely to get drowned in popcorn, butter, shaving cream, fire breathing, fuel, water – a lot of visceral elements. It is going to be a wonderful celebration of La Clique‘s unique history. We’re really excited about coming to Adelaide, particularly as it’s just before we do a big season in Edinburgh this year. We’re taking the show back to Edinburgh for the 20th anniversary celebrations.”
La Clique
Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre
Wednesday 18 June and Thursday 19 June at 8pm
Friday 20 June and Saturday 21 June at 6pm & 9pm
Sunday 22 June at 6pm
https://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/la-clique
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