‘Railed’ had me leaving the venue with raw hands and a sore throat. This was purely credit to the tremendous hour of hilarity and breathtaking spectacles that made clapping and screaming a necessity.
The funniest cowboys are in town and their acrobatic flair is truly something to behold. The choreography of ‘Railed’ is truly mesmerising, bar brawls and shootouts are interspersed between the most incredible feats of human athleticism. Your jaw will be on the floor as you witness some of the most death-defying and adrenaline filled stunts that you need to see to believe.
But as the common saying goes, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link but luckily for this quartet from Head First Acrobats, there is no weakest link. They are as impressive individually as they are collectively. Each of them has their own individual talents, ranging from whip mastery, to magic and of course some unbelievable acrobatics. There are times during this show that you will be on the edge of your seat, sweaty-palmed and holding your breath as you witness stunts that humans should never even attempt.
But as a whole they are even better. Dialogue is few and far between in this performance but it’s so unnecessary when these lot have an unspoken chemistry that supersedes the spoken word. They are unapologetically expressive, mustering some deafening laughter from everyone in attendance. The scenes are brilliantly homoerotic and downright sexy as these bandits in booty shorts bare all in the quest to entertain.
It is not entirely slapstick; these people have clearly put in countless hours of effort into their craft, and they take their time to go above and beyond pure rambunctiousness to show us the beauty of their artform. As is natural for this line of work, there are a couple of mistakes throughout the performance, but the groups’ natural ability as performers means these are glossed over and often become more hilarious than the intended stunt.
These acrobats are unbelievably talented and equally hilarious and to miss their show would be doing yourself a disservice.
Railed, 18:35 at Assembly George Square Gardens (Venue 3),August 11 – 14, 16 – 21, 23 – 28
