French-Canadian megacircus Cirque du Soleil return to the Royal Albert Hall in January for the second UK run of their show Totem. Sideshow saw it at the RAH last year, and can report that it's a typical Cirque du Soleil show in that it casts artists of incredible skill within a narrative (here the narrative of human evolution) that can be safely ignored. Totem though is actually a very weak CDS show: where others are sort of emptily entertaining, here even the rhythm and dramaturgy of the piece is a drag. The involvement of Robert Lepage as director is largely meaningless.

(For more on the company cf Sideshow's account of a visit to Cirque du Soleil's Montreal HQ.)