Beyond @ St Andrew's Square, 26 Nov

Review by George Sully | 27 Nov 2015

Recent years have seen a rise in the number of quality Australian circus acts. La Clique’s Velvet, Casus Circus’s Jerk, Strut & Fret’s Limbo – and that’s just from 2015’s Edinburgh Fringe. But one Aussie company in particular has maintained a strong critical cachet: Queensland-based Circa. While their August show this year – Close Up – didn’t quite sweep the boards in the way past efforts have, we’re fortunate to have the much-lauded Beyond return to the capital for Christmas.

And it’s a real treat. Where some productions might get weighed down by a clunky narrative, or overwrought, ponderous philosophy, Yaron Lifschitz’s direction here is nigh-on puritanical, pared down to the essentials. There’s no story as such – though individual scenes tell their own cute, wordless tales – and beyond the opening voiceover (“There is a line between human and animal, between madness and sanity...”) there’s a welcome lack of pouty posturing to spell out the meaning of the show.

Instead, we’re given brief glimpses into the world of seven individuals, whose sibling-esque rough-and-tumbling belies a deep, communicative intimacy (at times, amid the chaos, they act like one brain); their stolen glances, caught breaths and barely audible snarls seem only for each other, not for us, and we’re lucky to be privy to their playtime. It’s more than just slapstick; the deliberately unpolished feats, full of expertly controlled failure and learning, of grimaces and cheers, create a disarming, inclusive, voyeuristic atmosphere.

But, while the big, floppy animal heads, the squawks and growls and the constant clambering over each other are, ostensibly, childlike, the sombre unmaskings, the muscular trapeze and balance routines, the tranquil moments with a single piece of paper – these come from somewhere older, darker, and smudge the distinction between character and performer.

Mixing Sinatra and Bonnie Tyler with CocoRosie makes for an eclectic soundtrack, but each choice is a well-aimed prod at the heartstrings. It’s unlikely Amanda Palmer ever anticipated, when she decided to cover Radiohead’s Fake Plastic Trees on a ukelele, that it would be used for a lone girl twirling acrobatically from ropes in the circus, nor that it would cause this reviewer to fight back tears only ten minutes into the show.

Faultlessly adapted for a 360-degree stage in the St. Andrew’s Square Paradiso tent, Beyond is everything circus should be: physical bravura coupled with honest, unpatronising emotion, and neither impeding the other. Technically astounding, but universally enjoyable, it’s the kind of art that steps off the stage, takes your hand, and leads you somewhere new.

Circa Beyond, 20 Nov-3 Jan, Paradiso, St Andrew's Square, 7.30pm, from £21 http://www.edinburghschristmas.com/whats-on/circa-beyond