Circus
Beyond
The Spiegeltent, Edinburgh
Mary Brennan
FOUR STARS
In these civilised times, we don’t countenance animals in the Big Top – well, not in the ring, anyway. Hold on... are those bunnies? Getting all acrobatically frisky on the teensy circle of a stage in this Spiegeltent? Trust Circa, the elastic-limbed (and elastically creative) company from Australia, to fool around with boundaries and go Beyond! If the fluffy bunny heads worn occasionally by the performers are a cutesy-comic look, they’re really a nod in the direction of some intriguing themes that Circa director, Yaron Lifschitz, has woven through the dramatic acrobalances, trapeze work and general gravity-defying derring-do. Drawing inspiration from Alice in Wonderland and Darwin especially, Lifschitz lets his imagination plunge down rabbit-holes while his seven performers – three male, four female – allow inner animal instincts to escape into action.
There’s a lovely moment of brinkmanship when a guy in an over-large bear suit essays the Chinese Pole, paws slip-sliding until – still on the pole – he emerges, lithe and free, from his furry cocoon. Feline grace, coupled with an innate ability to read space and judge distances – even when blind-folded – turns a woman’s solo balancing act across three poles of varying height into a poetic reality that shrugs off risk, celebrates strength as an art-form. In Circa-land, strength, flair and versatility trump gender every time: just as in 2014. when Beyond was a hit on the Fringe, Rowan Heydon-White’s insouciant rapid-solving of a Rubik’s cube while her mates pile onto her shoulders is a bravura display of skill, stamina and humour. If the Speigeltent’s intimate arena makes for a stripped-back look in terms of set, there’s no compromise in terms of cunning stunts or split-second thrills – Beyond does the trick brilliantly, every time.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here