OVO Cirque du Soleil at Royal Albert Hall

Cirque du Soleil’s Ovo brings its beautiful insect paradise back to London to kick off a new world tour.

From the minds of the largest and most prestigious circus production company in the world comes Ovo, a wonderful world among the plants where the insects work and dance and play, and each performs some mind-bending feats of athleticism. The ants collect and play with their food, the moths bask in the sun and fly together, the fleas leap up and down and so on.

Ovo is essentially a collection of impressive individual circus performances from slackwire to aerial cradle, tied together with a loose but satisfying narrative thread. A strange egg appears to the insects, and their world buzzes with curiosity and excitement. In between the larger acts, three clowns – a beetle, a fly and a ladybird – entertain with gibberish talk and slapstick humour.

This is a show full of wow and wonder. The stage is stunning with its great big flowers and dangling leaves, the costumes range from iconic to mesmerising, and even the show’s programme is the most gorgeously designed thing.

The huge cast, hailing from every corner of the world, are nothing short of spectacular. The show kicks off with a crazy-good “whoa”-inducing display from some foot juggling ants and only gets more magnificent from there with the most powerful feats of strength, delicate movements and plenty of insects flying and flipping through the air, many moments of which leave the audience breathless.

The clowns are genuinely very funny. The Voyager Fly tries to woo the Ladybug and keeps failing to hilarious effect. Their bug-like chirps and whistles are expertly spoken and almost hypnotic, cleverly playing out a recognisable dialogue without the need for a recognisable language.

In the truest sense of the word, Ovo is awesome. It’s an energetic, beautiful, can’t-possibly-look-away, monumental, snatch-your-breath epic. Just to see human beings do the things that are done in this show is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but Ovo manages to create a lovely and coherent narrative for them to perform in.