Tim Hughes gets stuck into a night of raucous, brassy circus from Circa Tsuica

AS a theatre show, it sounded intriguing: a hybrid brass band/ circus troop from Southern France, combining music with acrobatics, and named after a particularly potent Romanian brandy.

It promised thrills, chaos and stirring instrumentation. And that’s exactly what it delivered.

Circus Tsuica is a group of 11 musicians who also double as jugglers, clowns and acrobats. They look like an anarchic marching band – with mismatched uniforms and peaked caps coupled with tights, shorts, or three-quarter length trousers – and appear to take great delight in making each other look foolish – the only exception being when they are falling in love with each other.

Like a brass version of tin-pan percussion show Stomp, Opus 7 sees the company embarking on a series of unlinked set-piece showpieces of acrobatic and musical dexterity – acts brought to life through Balkan-style brass, gypsy stomp and klezmer.

They start off balanced on a long plank, turned into a seesaw by a stack of breeze blocks. Performers blast away into their instruments while being flung into the air – at times spectacularly.

At other times they hover weightlessly from each other – with just a foot hooked around a partner’s neck and Newton’s Third Law of Motion (the one about each action having an equal but opposite reaction) to keep them perfectly balanced.

A sequence where a young woman is carried aloft by her partner – her body seemingly floating around his – while she continues to play a lilting riff on a ukulele – is beyond beautiful. The culmination – with her raised above his head united the audience in delight.

Other bits are sillier – but nonetheless appealed to the largely young crowd, who also appreciated the candy floss and popcorn being served up in the foyer – itself done up like a circus big top.

The night ended with an exercise in soundpainting – a technique in live composing – involving the Oxfordshire Dixieland Jazz Band. It was great, the performers matching the cast in talent.

A hugely enjoyable night then. I’ll never look at a brass band the same again.

4/5