The Anhui acrobatic troupe from central China was founded in 1956, and watching them perform you imagine that they have been doing pretty much the same thing since then. Acrobatic skills are here in abundance; it is the presentational skills that are almost entirely lacking.
Za-Ji apparently means "a variety of feats" and that is exactly what you get, all performed to mushy music by a troupe with fixed smiles in costumes largely influenced by the gaudier end of the ballet, or Russell Crowe's Gladiator. Some of the acts have a high "wow" factor, including a terrific leaping through rings stunt; others, particularly when the company goes into artistic mode, exude tasteful frumpishness. Artistic Poses is indeed just that: a glass balancing act comes with accompanying vestal virgins, and the show opens with an excruciating flying ballet, an aerial Romeo and Juliet with a double helping of cheese.
Central China is pretty remote, but it does seem extraordinary that the troupe can have remained so untouched by any of the developments of modern circus in the past 20 or so years. They have been left behind in a world that realised that it's not just what you can do, but how you package it that counts.
With a new producer and a new approach, this company might well make the leap from stunt to art form. The unpromisingly titled Ladies With Chairs suggests so. This extraordinary feat involves seven young women building a strange and precarious free-standing chairway to heaven with wooden seats and then doing handstands on it without either structure or acrobats toppling. With its images of the improbable rubbing up against the impossible, it is a scenario open to many metaphors about the stupidity and resilience of human endeavour. All Anhui has to do is frame it.
· Until November 29. Box office: 020 7863 8000.
