Circus used to occur in large tops. The Underbelly Boulevard is a really small high, a venue the place the fire-breathers virtually singe your eyebrows and the roller-skaters go away eau de axle grease lingering up your nostril. Sophie’s Shock twenty ninth is a circus and cabaret present masquerading as a birthday do, the place a conceit thinner than the tissue in your get together hat is spun round a collection of death-defying acts. There’s no security web, nor any reassuring margin between viewers and performers. You realise with a gulp that had been this or that aerialist to lose their grip, it’s not simply their neck on the road, however fairly presumably yours too.
That’s a part of the fun, after all, and there are thrills, and repeated involuntary barks of “come off it!” on my half – when Josie Jones goes airborne together with her fireplace act, and creates a hoop of sudden flame above our heads, or when skater Isis Clegg-Vinell spins like a pinwheel whereas connected to sidekick Nathan Worth by headband alone. Along with all the standard rippling biceps, six-packs and whatnot, there are muscular tissues being maxed out right here I’m undecided I even have. There’s versatility, too: repeatedly, to my amazement that these performers can do this, I discover myself moreover astonished they will do that as nicely.
That’s all fairly sufficient to ship what Clegg-Vinell describes as “a ‘get collectively along with your mates and a bevvy’ type of present.” The viewers received’t be dissatisfied, and should not thoughts that the home get together idea is underdeveloped, give or take the odd acrobatics routine framed as two boys preventing over a woman. Among the meta commentary is have-cake-and-eat-it, as Katharine Arnold’s plain Jane turned femme fatale makes a sarky comment in regards to the male gaze, and Worth critiques the category politics of a present that later makes use of the phrase “chav” uncritically. Comedian aid Dru Cripps’ interludes are little greater than filler: some duff call-and-response antics with the gang, nudity, some lyrically weak improvised songs. Droop your important colleges, although, and these numerous suspended daredevils are very simple to take pleasure in.
