From its base in Quebec, Canada’s Cirque Alphonse return to Sydney Festival with a barnyard charmer of a show, 75-minutes of good humoured, family-oriented contemporary circus.

If you’ve seen Cirque Alphonse before (2015’s Timber, for example), you’ll know the drill to some extent. This extended family company founded in 2005 (by performer Antoine Carabinier-Lépine and his father, Alain) work in an unconventionally gritty style, creating routines inspired by rural life and Québécois culture – especially its music.

Cirque Alphonse: Animal. Photo © Benoit Leroux

Doubling as musicians (there’s a full-time pianist, guitarist and percussionist), the five-performer company stick to the time-honoured basics (teeterboards, strength-and-balance routines, juggling) but everything gets a humorous, homespun twist with props including wheelbarrows, old milk churns and a flock of rubber chickens.

Novel items include a three-man juggling routine with a pair of enormous cowbells, a tractor tyre used in tandem with see-saw jumps, a mechanical rodeo ‘bull’ and a nailbiting routine performed with three fresh eggs that had the kids in the audience screaming.

The teamwork is warm and playful (occasional flubs are one of the delights of the show – especially when involving a cracked egg) and...