Zambezi Express, Hackney Empire

Zambezi Express is at the Hackney Empire until 28 October

ZAMBEZI Express styles itself as “the happiest show on earth”. There is certainly a lot of smiling on stage, and it’s chock-a-block with dancing, acrobatics and general feelgood oomph.

If there is precious little in the way of plot, it is of little consequence in a show like this. The story, such as it is, concerns a young man from a Zimbabwean slum who dreams of becoming a great footballer – a kind of African Slumdog Millionaire or Billy Elliot .

The show’s producer is Gerry Cottle, a former big top performer who now teaches circus skills at the Wookey Hole Circus School. He was not born into the circus, but joined as a “josser” (an outsider) at 15.

“I saw my first circus when I was eight,” says Cottle, now 64. “and I decided that was what I wanted to do. I used to go down to Chessington Zoo, which had a circus in those days.

“I wanted to join the circus immediately but my parents said I had to finish school first. I went to a good school – I learnt Latin for four years and I didn’t understand a word of it. So I just ran away and joined the circus.”

The 30 performers in Zambezi Express are members of Zimbabwean theatre company Siyaya, and Gerry hired them for the show after seeing them perform dance routines at Womad. But the show, which celebrates triumph over adversity, has faced adversity of its own.

Cottle admits ticket sales have been slow (for its opening night at the Empire, Zambezi played to a small audience, with both the theatre’s upper tiers empty), and he says the economic climate hasn’t helped.

“Bringing African plays over to the UK is always a struggle,” explains Cottle. “Years ago I produced a show called Africa Africa. It toured round Germany and then went to the Trafford Centre in Manchester. It played to sellout crowds in Germany, but when it came to England, ticket sales nosedived.”

But that isn’t the only problem the show has faced – getting UK work permits for the Zimbabwean cast proved difficult, and many of the cast had never been out of Zimbabwe before.

“Some of the performers had never even been on a plane,” explains Gerry Cottle Jnr, Gerry Cottle’s son, who is press and PR manager for the show. “One guy didn’t have a birth certificate or a passport.

“There were lots of cultural differences that were visible straight away when they arrived in England. When the cast first came to Bournemouth, they were asking why no one made any noise until the end of the act. In Zimbabwe, the audience would be clapping and making noise all the way through.”

However, despite the somewhat disappointing ticket sales, both Cottles say they hope to bring the show back to the UK and find a permanent base for it over here.

“It’s just really good fun,” explains Gerry Cottle. “And the performers are a really nice bunch.”

Zambezi Express is at the Hackney Empire until 28 October. More information here.