The Famous Spiegeltent has popped up outside the Canberra Theatre, adding colour, music and some and pizzaz to Civic Square.

There is a lot of history and a little bit of mystery (we heard there is a resident ghost!) with the 96-year-old Famous Spiegeltent. The travelling ‘tent of mirrors’ was built in Belgium, and has travelled to festivals around the world. From musicians to magicians, comedians and burlesque performers the Famous Spiegeltent has been centre stage for thousands of acts.

The highlight of the Canberra Season is La Clique. We attended the opening night session; with no set seating, we felt lucky to secure front row seats – well, until they set up a bath-tub on the stage and handed out sheets of plastic for the front row to cover themselves in!

There was a lot of ‘oohs and ahhs’, toe-tapping and laughter

La Clique – dancers

La Clique – acrobats

We enjoyed the mix of acts. A great on stage band, dancers and acrobats, audience participation with the magicians and even a royal guest pops by to add to the proceedings. The Famous Spiegeltent enhanced the performance, with reflections from the mirrors providing a vantage point of what the other side of the audience was seeing. There was a lot of ‘oohs and ahhs’, toe-tapping and laughter throughout the performance – making it a fun night out.

Pulp Kitchen, April’s Caravan, a pop-up bar, some lounge chairs and tables are set-up outside the tent so that you can enjoy some pre-show supper and drinks. Our recommendation – the sirloin steak with slaw and with a glass of the Shaw sparkling, we enjoyed our pre-show summertime picnic, with the soft tones of music emanating from the tent.

The Famous Spiegeltent will be in Canberra until 14 March; La Clique is on every day except Monday. See the Canberra Theatre for performance and ticket details.

Inside the Famous Spiegeltent.

What you need to know:

• there is no allocated seating – so arrive early to get your pick of the house, if seating runs out, you stand in front of the bar area.
• open windows provide the only form of cooling inside the tent;  if you do tend to feel the heat, it is the perfect setting to use a gorgeous handheld fan.
• if nudity is not ‘your thing’ – La Clique may not be the show for you, pick one of the other performances on offer in the Famous Spiegeltent.
• Pulp Kitchen, April’s Caravan and the pop-up open on the nights there is a 6pm performance.
• Social hashtags: #FamousSpiegeltent #LaClique #CanberraTheatre