Shanghai Circus World — ERA

Shanghai Circus World (上海马戏城) stands on Gonghexin Road in Jing’an, well north of the historic centre, under a faceted dome that is hard to miss from the elevated road running beside it. Its house production, ERA, is the acrobatics show most tour groups and Shanghai families end up seeing. Acrobatic craft — contortion, aerial work, balancing and tumbling — is broken into segments and threaded through projected scenery, music and group dance. There is almost no spoken dialogue, so nothing is lost if you do not speak Chinese.

What a first visit actually involves

The performance fills a full evening. Arrive about half an hour early: the entrance backs up before curtain, and finding your seat in a large auditorium takes longer than you expect. Seats are sold by tier, and the gap between tiers is real money, so decide before you buy rather than at the counter. The stage is wide, and the big set pieces read best from the centre; seats at the far sides lose some of that. Metro Line 1 stops at Shanghai Circus World station right by the theatre, so leaving after the finale is quick and you can put dinner first. Plan that meal somewhere else, though — the surrounding blocks are road, housing and very little else.

The honest caveat

This is a polished commercial production aimed at visitors, not the edge of Chinese circus. Some of the multimedia staging and choreography feels dated to people who see a lot of theatre, the auditorium is big, and the audience is often largely tour groups. Tickets are expensive by the standards of a Chinese theatre, and because discounts are common but inconsistent, the official box office is the only listing worth trusting. ERA has been running long enough to have been reworked more than once, and the edition currently staged is billed as ERA 2: Spirit of Shanghai (时空之旅2), so older reviews and photographs may describe a different version. If you are looking for small-scale contemporary circus or a traditional variety programme, look elsewhere.