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Circa: Beyond 5***** - One4Review

Circa: Beyond 5*****

| On 26, Nov 2015

With Christmas exactly one month away Edinburgh has been transformed into a veritable cornucopia of festive cheer with lights, stalls, amusements Ferris wheels an ice rink brightening up the murky November days and at the centre of St Andrews’ Square gardens the Paradiso Speigeltent is home for a variety of shows as well.

Key performers in this fabulous historic building are Aussie performers Circa, who are delighting people with their latest creative masterpiece Beyond, a jam-packed hour fusing the styles of circus skills, acrobatics and gymnastics with humour, style and the occasional animal head to boot depicting the fine line between humans and animals also similarly the marginal divisions of sanity and insanity.

This is a 360 degree piece, created by the eight strong troupe in conjunction with director Yaron Lifschitz, that had the packed out crowd marvelling at the skill of all of the performers, be it strength, bendiness, artistry, balance and sheer all round entertainment value with degrees of difficulty that amaze. For example completing a Rubic’s cube while supporting several other performers at the same time left me shaking my head in disbelief. The music chosen to accompany the segments added to the ambiance of the evening and the flow from each section was seamless.

As one would expect by such established experts the finale around the centre pole was a fitting climax to the hour. Frenetic movement, amazing balancing skills, death defying ‘drops’ accompanied by a Sex Pistols backing track sent everyone away feeling privileged to have witnessed such a spectacular.

Yet of course the experience doesn’t have to end there. There is street food, bars and assorted other stalls to add to the experience. There is a packed programme of other events available the details of which can be found on www.edinburghschristmas.com where tickets for all events can be purchased.

*****

Reviewed by Geoff

Paradiso Speigeltent St Andrew’s Square

Until 3 January 2016 (check website for dates and times)

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