Summer Spectacular (Hippodrome Circus, Great Yarmouth)
Verdict: A great Bank Holiday splash
Circus Berlin (Lodmo or Country Park, Weymouth, and touring)
Verdict: Berlin or bust
Rating: 
Hanky on head or brolly in hand, where better to spend the August Bank Holiday than at the great British seaside?
And where greater than Great Yarmouth itself, with its Riviera-style beaches, funfairs and crazy golf circuits.
Arguably its finest feature is the Hippodrome Circus, a 1903 bricks-and-mortar big top that is the only one of its kind still functioning in the country. Somehow, the folks there have managed to weather the virus and put on a socially-distanced performance, running an impressive gamut from daredevilry to synchronised swimming.
It’s showtime! Summer Spectacular
The show starts with unicyclist Pavel Valla going up a flight of stairs in time to heavy metal music. He then hops alarmingly between a platform and trampoline on his single wheel, after which he skips (still on his bike) and finishes with a backward somersault.
All that was just about within my health-and-safety comfort zone. But then came Mario and Svilen on the Wheel of Death, a terrifying contraption that looks like a couple of super-sized hamster wheels mounted as a pair of revolving spectacles. I could watch while the boys scurried about inside their drums — but skipping and running blindfold on the outside? Oh no!
Add to that contortionist Sheyen Caroli firing arrows from a bow with her feet while in the scorpion position, and I felt my need for danger was well and truly satisfied for at least the next 12 months. So I was pathetically grateful for Scottish clown Johnny Mac, keeping people a socially correct two metres away with the aid of his Donald Trump face mask.
Dancing choreographed by Estelle Clifton added a nice touch of razzmatazz, and allowed the set change from Wheel of Death to Pool of Synchronised Swimming.
And thereafter, you can head back to the beach to recover by barbecuing in the sun or marinating in the rain, depending on the weather forecast.
A perfect day out.
ALTERNATIVELY, in Weymouth this weekend you can catch the terrific Circus Berlin, a troupe operating out of a more conventional big top. They, too, had me scanning the tent for a defibrillator when the buff young Mustafa Danguir Troupe took to their version of the Wheel of Death. Happily, the mandatory face mask helped slow my hyperventilation.
Although Circus Berlin can’t convert their arena into a pool, they have plenty of heart-stopping tricks of their own. Kevin Chaves balancing on the seat of his Harley‑Davidson atop a tower fashioned from a rolling pin, a chopping board, a ball, a cube and three skateboards very nearly sent me to my eternal rest.
But the pièce de résistance was the Team Nogueira riders whizzing around the inside of a giant sphere on motorbikes, like electrons in the Large Hadron Collider. The act is known defiantly as the Globe of Death.
One moped on this kamikaze mission was plenty; two gave me arrhythmia; and when they were joined by a third, all I needed was a priest. Now I know what London’s Deliveroo riders are training for.
Circus Berlin
And then the Wheel of Death boys were back, this time on a high wire — not walking, but skipping, cycling and, finally, making a pyramid.
No less impressive is aerialist Erica Chaves doing her splits in the sky and tumbling down lengths of ribbon.
Frankly, it came as a blessed relief to watch Shauna Moore and Rafael Marquez Alvarado’s roller-skating tango, which ends with the couple, joined at the neck, performing a spinning pirouette.
I’m in awe of these companies and their determination that the show must go on. Aptly, Circus Berlin ends with Bruno Mars singing Uptown Funk — ‘Don’t believe me, just watch!’
Three Billion Swipes (nationaltheatrescotland.com)
Verdict: Short and sweet
Rating: 
Another week, another entertaining offering from the National Theatre of Scotland’s Scenes For Survival series.
Three Billion Swipes is about a nervous young man (David Rankine) on an online speed date. He lives with his mum, wears a tie for the occasion and sprays his room with deodorant before logging on.
His date (Kirsty Findlay) is still whiffy from a workout and only giving him a break because she’s ‘got all her filters off’.
Writer Corinne Salisbury keeps us guessing how it will work out over the neatly plotted eight minutes. And there’s a twist.
This Beautiful Virtual Village (abbeytheatre.ie)
Verdict: Too woke for its own good
Rating: 
The wokenesss pandemic has sadly struck Ireland, too. Lisa Tierney-Keogh’s drama starts off looking as though it might be quite good fun, with lesbian Liz (Amy Conroy) trying to swat a fly ahead of a Zoom meeting of a South Dublin residents association.
In fact, Liz is incandescent about some misogynistic graffiti that’s appeared on a wall of the estate, and it’s soon clear that this is a seminar in ‘white privilege’ and ‘the patriarchy’.
I wouldn’t have minded the strong language, reinforced with religious oaths, but it’s all in the service of sectarian animosity. Besides, I refuse to believe people loathe each other as thoroughly as Tierney-Keogh suggests, even in these twisted times.