You walk off Arcade Lane and into a dim, yellow-lit hallway, lined with white birdcages and fairy lights. The Birdcage is the ‘circus hub’ for the Adelaide Fringe Festival and After Dark Theatre’s ‘Another Point of View’ is one of its featured shows.

It’s a story of two girls, friends, who go about their daily life in solitude until one day a phone rings and offers them a glimpse of the outside world.

This quirky, offbeat circus show won’t appeal to everyone, but it does have two elegant acrobatic performers.

On the small stage is an old suitcase and phone, a small basin with matching cups and toothbrushes, and a cardboard-covered television. An aerial hoop and sheet are hanging from the ceiling; hinting at the circus performance we are about to see.

Blackness. Then yellow lighting draws attention to the ringing phone. Out pops a hand from the suitcase followed by “Hello?” – the only word used throughout the fifty-minute performance.

As Annette Hanshaw’s ‘I Wanna Be Loved by You’ plays, two different sets of hands and legs come out from the suitcase, playfully patting it. Then two people emerge, wearing frilly petticoats.

These two friends have a way of doing things a little differently. Like brushing their teeth while bending over backwards or eating their cereal with their toes holding the spoon. They also love to watch talkies in between their acrobatic performances.

Together the girls are stunning on the aerial hoop, demonstrating both flexibility and amazing symmetry, matching each other with every twist and turn. At one point they are both upside down on the same hoop, with one hanging from the other, a feat which earns them a round of applause.

The highlight of the night is the performance on the tissu: circus speak for a suspended sheet. One of the girls twists and turns, using the material for support when suddenly she drops and holds her arms out, hanging in mid-air like an angel.

What’s great about this performance, acrobatic skills aside, is how the two friends connect with each other without even speaking. We feel their happiness, anger, and loneliness without them even uttering a word. Lighting is used well, drawing attention to certain moments in the play and highlighting the characters’ emotions.

The girls’ comical miming also makes this a great show for children who will appreciate their antics. The pace is slow in some moments of the performance, but the acrobatics keep the audience engaged.

‘Another Point of View’ is a peculiar and entertaining circus performance, best enjoyed in the company of friends.

Cathedral full. A good sign.

They promised ‘balladic splendour’ and they delivered. The Idea of North’s Ballads by Candlelight was a treat for the ears and the soul.

Despite the stifling hot weather, St Peter’s Cathedral is packed. A soft applause starts and four people walk down, past the front altar. They are The Idea of North (TION). Australia’s most successful a cappella vocal ensemble captivated a full house for over an hour in the wonderful acoustics of the cathedral.

After a calming opener of ‘Meet me in the middle of the air’, showcasing Soprano Sally Cameron’s crystal-sharp pitching, they bring an old, Hollywood charm with ‘The Nearness of You.’ Andrew Piper’s steady bass is on display in this song and many others; he also handles the job of percussion with ease.

Tenor Nick Begbie is the ensemble’s unofficial MC and provides subtle humour throughout the night, even serenading a member of the audience with Randy Newman’s ‘Marie’. Or in this case, Randy Newman’s ‘Wendy’– the name of the unsuspecting woman in the front row. Newman is a favourite composer of theirs and is featured again in TION’s version of ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’ from the 1980s film ‘Beaches’. Unplanned irony, given the airless heat Adelaide is experiencing. Alto Naomi Crellin’s solo is sublime as she is supported by perfectly balanced harmonies.

A plethora of ballads by a range of great composers, including Sting, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stevie Wonder, follows, every song showcasing the group’s amazing range and wondrous melodies.

TION not only engages the audience through song but also through their words, providing background information for many of their pieces. For example, guess which song was originally removed from an iconic film before a petition brought it back in. Here’s another hint: it was voted the number one song of the twentieth century. Yes, TION’s arrangement of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ is the highlight of the night. Sarah’s goosebump-worthy performance of Judy Garland’s classic garners the loudest and longest applause from the audience. The quartet receives a well deserved encore, and performs a Sinead O’Connor Irish ballad.

TION is celebrating its twentieth anniversary and will prepare to release their new album later this year. There’s no doubt this group is extremely talented and versatile, putting a new class and sophistication into a cappella.

“There goes the security deposit.”

Lily looks at the bloodied, rolled up carpet on her apartment floor while Phil pants desperately, wielding a baseball bat.

If you have a taste for black comedy and physical humour and don’t get squeamish at the sight of blood, then Fairly Lucid Productions’ ‘Raton Laveur’ is well worth a look.

Aussie couple Phil (Ben Noble) and Lily (Wendy Bos) have just moved to Canada. Lily is building a successful career in advertising while Phil is just managing as a waiter in a creperie. It is at work that Phil’s obsession with raccoons begins. He believes he is being stalked by the leader of a raccoon pack – the Raccoon king – the ‘raton laveur’ (French for raccoon), whose ‘dexterous little hands’ are sifting through his rubbish.

Phil, whose insecure immaturity is captured brilliantly by Noble, is no stranger to obsessions – a raccoon stalker being his latest. After finding out the average male loses 50 to 100 hairs a day, he started collecting every single hair that left his head to make sure he was in the average range.

One night Phil’s obsession with the Raccoon king takes a deadly turn and he is left bloodied and bruised with a covered corpse in his living room. He calls Lily, and begs her to return home. Lily returns to help Phil clean up the blood and decide what to do next. As Lily and Phil struggle to dispose of the body, the cracks in their relationship begin to show. Phil’s insecurity is overwhelming to Lily, who is clearly the one holding the relationship together.

At only 60 minutes, the show is packed with lots of humour and one-liners, extracting many chuckles from the audience. The set is minimalist: a few bloodied cardboard boxes on the Bakehouse theatre’s intimate main stage used for Phil’s anti-raccoon barricade. Lighting is used well to highlight the emotional up and downs of the play, including a sombre ending. Elvis Presley’s ‘Love Me Tender’ is ironically used at the start and end of this gory hour.

Noble and Bos have brilliant chemistry and comic timing and make a wonderful odd couple. Phil is needy, insecure and ultimately homicidal, while Lily is cool, calm and composed. Despite their differing personality traits, there are a few affectionate moments in the midst of the surrounding chaos.

The promo for ‘Raton Laveur’ warns of mature adult elements and graphic violence and rightly so. Once again, if blood isn’t your thing, you may have trouble stomaching this engaging black comedy. While it won’t appeal to everyone’s tastes, ‘Raton Laveur’ is a wonderful piece of theatre with two upstanding performances.

‘Raton Laveur’ is showing at the Bakehouse theatre until March 17.