Patrick McDonald - Adelaide Now

SEEDY, seamy and sensual, it's immediately clear why Cantina was the must-see, sell-out hit of last year's Fringe.

It opens with the most dexterous display of tightrope tricks you're ever likely to see as a couple twists and twirls on the high wire, dancing and doing the splits rather than simply walking the line.

A mad frenzy of activity between acts, as the performers burst into Charleston-style routines, evokes the atmosphere of a Prohibition-era speakeasy club.

A girl who walks on wonky ankles turns out to be an amazing contortionist, bending her limbs like a floppy ragdoll, yet doing so with the most incredible grace.

Swing dancing is fused with gravity defying stunts and incredible pratfalls.

There's a comic variation on the old disappearing handkerchief routine, performed with flickering lights like a silent movie, that will leave you gasping with disbelief and laughter.

Another dance duet between a nearly-naked man and a woman in staggering stilettos turns into a spectacle which is equal measures of acrobatics and sado-masochism.

The magic of Cantina is the way it mesmerises with its old-world charm, while shocking with the audacity of its spectacle.

Cantina, Circus

The Vagabond, GUD

Until February 27