There’s a moment very early on in An Adagio Christmas when the whole theatre gasped in unison, and both our daughters stood up in shock. The moment passed, the shock faded, but they never quite settled back past the edges of their seats. Like the rest of us, from then on they were hooked.

An Adagio Christmas is a retuned-for-Christmas version of the earlier Downstage production of the same name; a series of loosely linked vignettes whose performances encompass various circus skills as well as music, singing, dancing, and comedy.

While there’s little narrative in the usual sense, there’s plenty to watch and marvel at. Anyone who enjoyed circus performances like Gravity and Other Myths will find much here to enjoy. Rowan Heydon White and Mason West are both nothing short of amazing performers (our youngest’s description of Mason West: "the man with the cap was very strong and clever").

There’s also plenty to laugh at (though there might well be some slightly different joke selections for the matinees). We all enjoyed the comedic elements, with Angela Green’s ventriloquist’s dummy and Jenny MacArthur’s ballerina both the subject of later hysterical shared rememberings.

The finale was beautifully sung by Asalemo Tofete, and the performance ended with a wonderfully Christmassy touch that our eldest liked so much she later replicated it for herself.

An Adagio at Christmas is a great night out for the whole family—whatever and whomever you consider your family to be. We’ve been recommending it to everyone we know.

Information:

• An Adagio Christmas.
• Showing until the 20th of December 2009: bookings at Downstage.