FIQ! Dazzles at the Brighton Dome

The Brighton Dome has a brilliant new tradition for slightly-off kilter Christmas time shows which in recent years have seen some marvellous vibrant and fun productions.

Fiq! (Wake up!), by Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger, is a loud, brash and visually stunning display of dance, acrobatics and music, and worthy addition to the aforementioned tradition.

On Sunday (December 18) the Christmas run opened to a packed Dome, as the Moroccan group took to the stage with the accompaniment of excited babbling young voices.

The fifteen-piece troupe and beat-dispensing DJ, began dressed in black, limbering up physically and musically, before launching into a colourful, noisy celebration of life (‘a mission to wake the world’), with astounding physical feats and a motorbike…

Early on the video backdrop asks: ‘What can a body do?’ – Quite a lot it turns out.

The gymnastics and acrobatics are super human with irresistible displays of balance and strength that are beyond the imagination of a movie script-writer.

Certainly waaaay beyond your reviewer, one particularly staggering display defied description and could best be described as a seemingly endless, high-speed static cartwheel. Although there may well be another name for it amongst beyond-human gymnasts.

Elsewhere there were some good laughs to be had from the rarely mined realm of selfie-acrobatics, as their exploits were projected from their phones onto a large white (mobile phone-shaped) boards.

What followed was probably the first instance of duck-face pouting acrobatics, and the sight of another dancer taking the Dome stairs on his hands and somersaulting through an empty bar.

Historically there also can’t have been too many motorbikes on the Dome stage, certainly not weaving through Quicksliver performers.

The only sequence which may have baffled the younger theatre goers was a well-intentioned section where the performers suggested we steer clear of some consumer items such as a paracetamol and palm oil, but hopefully the wonderful performers had broad enough shoulders to take the quieter audience moments with the otherwise enthusiastic responses elsewhere.

One man with more than broad shoulders (and whole bod) was the chap who managed to balance half the troupe atop his impressive traps and delts. Just one of the many memorable moments of this noisy, energetic and fun production which runs until December 27.

For tickets and show times go to brightondome.org/event/30234/fiq/