Have you ever seen a horse receive a tasteful lap dance from a unicorn? No? Well, neither had I until RAILED and that is most definitely something that I won’t be forgetting in a hurry.
Four cowboys come galloping in on toy stick horses, whooping and shouting and causing a ruckus to the sounds of country music. This is RAILED, a show where comedy and acrobatics meets the wild, wild, west. The boys from Head First Acrobatics, based in Melbourne, took to the stage and defied both death and gravity, wowing the audience with their plethora of circus skills. Leaving little to the imagination, they hip thrusted, flipped and juggled their way through the show, enthralling the audience with their talent.
After their unruly entrance, the show began. Set in a Western saloon, the drinks were flowing and the spirits were high. One of the cowboys had had a little too much to drink and came up with crafty ways to steal back the liquor that was being thrown around to mock him. Think piggy in the middle, except it’s the adult version instead. The first trick of the night began with a bang—two men holding the other two vertically stacked on top of one another. The audience knew that they were in for a treat tonight.
Following that, the whip came out next. One cowboy dressed in booty shorts and a horse mask appeared with a rose in hopes of winning over the hunk with the whip. Unfortunately, that pursuit didn’t last long as the rose was chopped head from stem by the other cowboy with his whip cracking skills. It was very impressive indeed.
At one point, a cowboy came onstage with a giant ring larger than him. He proceeded to leap along, dart between and flip through it while it spun around the small stage. It looked effortless and liquid and a whole lot of fun!
Next up were the other three cowboys doing handstands on chairs. The way they managed to almost glide into that upside-down position was amazing and had many of the audience’s jaws on the floor.
The other two retreated and left a lone cowboy onstage. Slowly but surely, he managed to stack five chairs on top of one another, climb the precarious tower and proceed flip into a handstand on top! The tension was palpable as the audience took a collective breath while he lifted the other hand from the chair. Five chairs up and he was upside down on one hand! The amount of control and strength involved was simply astonishing.
One of my favourite parts of the show was the slow-motion bar fight. It had the audience in hysterics as the four cowboys were tangled up together, their overdramatic facial expressions and wild gestures increasing the hilarity as their fighting poses mysteriously took on the form of positions meant for the bedroom…very clever and very funny indeed.
By the end of the show, I was questioning whether maybe, just maybe, country music may not be that terrible to listen to after all. Well, when it’s paired with shirtless men performing astounding circus tricks with a hefty amount of cheekiness thrown in for good measure, how could one say no?!
RAILED is on until 9th February as part of Fringe World Perth.
https://fringeworld.com.au/whats_on/railed-fw2020