Underbelly Circus Hub
Aug 25-26 (18:20)

Every Fringe I will always try & visit the Underbelly’s takeover of the meadows, just because they simply do bring us the very best in cutting edge circus. This year it was Peep Show, & what a truly magnificent spectacle it was! An acrobatically astounding series of stunts & stands, all escorted to rhythmic perfection by the deep & booming industrial beats of a DJ.

Sexy, erotic, quirky, quixotic, I really enjoy’d the constantly flowing, constantly evolving aesthetics of the show,it was all a bit like circus cubism, so tangl’d & twisting were the shapes elongating before our eyes. A swizzing, whizzing, fizzing phrenzie of ever-fluid, gasp-inducing & glorious performances of very clever stuff, it was a wonder. Loudly exclaim’d phrases like, ‘that was amazing,’ ‘that is actually insane’ & ‘that is so fucking cool, man,’ were constantly flicking off my tongue!

I’m definitely hetrosexual, like, & I’m not even ‘in denial’ or whatever, but to see the gladiatorial physiques of magnificent men combin’d with the deftest grace of the most delicate dancers was a real treat. I’m not gonna start composing a load of homoerotic sonnets, or anything, but boy are those boys beautiful!

Alongside them, of course, were the women, completing the yin & yang of nature in perfection. In all my times reviewing circussy stuff these ten years, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a scintillatingly cohesive union of parts – I mean, the tiniest dip in performance levels & the whole thing comes crashing down, perhaps with leg-breaking, career-ending results. It’s like playing Russian roulette with your limbs – & yer neck!

Watching Peep Show does make you realise we Humans are capable of reaching well beyond the capabilities we think we possess. I’m about to treble the size of my epic poem I’ve already spent twenty years on – that’s what I do. But these guys at peep Show are also approaching the upper slopes of Parnassus where the acrobatic avatar of Terpsichore is preparing a reyt funky aftershow party for this young, supercool & phenomenally talented troupe.

Damo