N 1956, I had the pleasure of going to the Haringey Arena in London to watch the famous Moscow State Circus.

The show was in two parts, the first involved human performers – acrobats, cossack riders and the famous clown Popov.

After the interval, the show was taken over by live bears, who rode motor bikes, drove cars and copied very skilfully many of the acts performed in the first half by humans.

The present tour of Britain by the Moscow State Circus does not include any animals. The emphasis is on spectacle and the theme is a Russian legend of twelve chairs.

Hidden in one of them are the family jewels but the set of chairs has been separated at an auction. The auctioneer’s desk clerk and a comrade are among a number of others trying to find the treasure chair. Their progress is the theme of the show.

We watched a hula-hoop act suspended from a revolving ring above the stage, high speed juggling, mass skipping as you have never seen before, multi-changing costumes in seconds and leaping acrobatics.

The climax of the show is a climb up a tower of all twelve chairs to reach the final one. The Moscow State Circus remains the standard by which all others must be judged.