IF YOU’RE a cabaret buff, brace yourself for La Soirée, a circus (for adults only)-cabaret-variety show described by presumably hard to please critics in the Western world as “divinely decadent” and “fun through and through.”

The production began as a late night cabaret show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in England in 2004, and expanded through the years in venues from New York to Paris, Montreal to Stockholm, and London to Sidney.

Now, La Soirée is performing in Asia for the first time. Coming from Hong Kong, it will be mounted at the Theater at Solaire for a limited run, from Sept. 23-27 (www.visa.com.ph)

They have been to more than 12 countries and 25 cities.

The handful of performers, numbering from 10-12, are tried and tested, top of the line, and include acrobats, contortionists, aerial gymnasts, singers, dancers and comedians. And there’s a representative from Africa, a delightful Nigerian Transgender whom his colleagues fondly describe as “la black mama.”

La Soirée has chalked up quite a number of awards. Including the prestigious Olivier Award for Best Entertainment in London this year, and New York’s Off-Broadway

Alliance Awards Last year. Its founder and creative director is Australian born Brett Maylock, who was previously connected with numerous art festivals around the world.

In an interview at Diamond Hotel in Manila, Maylock paid tribute to Filipino entertainers and performing artists, expressed keen pleasure at being in the Philippines for the first time, and declared that “the frenetic energy that Manila has matches what La Soirée brings onstage.”

He added: “We are always on the lookout for new acts in the countries that we visit.”

Consciously or unconsciously borrowing from Hemingway (when he wrote about Paris in his memoirs), Maylock said La Soirée’s lineup of acts “is a moveable feast.”