There’s something special about seeing shows in the round, as opposed to facing performers the way you would in a regular theater or at the opera. The arrangement seems to add a 3-D effect, as if providing extra depth to our sense of vision. Suddenly we’re not mere spectators anymore, but potential participants. This is particularly acute at the seasonal spiegeltent that, for the past three years, has been erected right next to South Street Seaport (and the old Fulton Street fish market) in downtown Manhattan. The venue’s name comes from the Flemish term for “tent of mirrors”—and that’s exactly what it is. The hard-shell venue looks like a transplant from the 1920s (when its kind became popular in continental Europe, particularly the Netherlands and Belgium), which helps enhance the feeling of the audience being cut off from its pedestrian 2008 reality. Booths ring the outer perimeter, but clearly the place to be is on one of the chairs that surround the tiny stage. When the performers strut their stuff, you’re so close that you can see every little drop of perspiration on their brows, and almost feel their breath. And in the case of roller-skating duo the Willers, spinning at high velocity a mere inches from your head, it’s hard not to recoil in fear of getting hit by an errand wheel. Sorry, but you just can’t get that kind of physical thrill on YouTube. read more