Edinburgh festival 2018: Lyn Gardner reviews Fringe’s Circus shows

The verdict on a selection of fringe shows on circus' 250th anniversary

(Damien Bredberg )

Egg ★★★☆☆ / Wolfgang ★★☆☆☆ / Casus: You and I ★★☆☆☆ / Casting Off ★★★☆☆ / Notorious Strumpet and Dangerous Girl ★★★★☆

Some argue that juggling can never have meaning but there are plenty of shows on the fringe this summer intent on proving that there’s more art to circus than the perfect backflip. It’s particularly gratifying to see such a range of pieces on so many different scales in the year that marks the 250th anniversary of circus.

The rise of circus on the fringe over the last decade is not just a quest for spectacle – although there are plenty of shows providing that. It reflects the increasing importance and appeal of an art form which is looking to use the dropped ball or the trapeze act to say something about the world or to tell personal stories.

That’s very much the case with Egg (Summerhall, until 26 August) which begins with the startling image of a naked woman in a water-filled plastic bag, clearly representing a soon to be born baby in the amniotic sac. Sarah Bebe Holmes’ story of fertility and egg donation made for her company Paper Doll Militia never quite tops that powerful beginning, but it does attempt to use circus to explore emotion as she tells the story of Carol who longs for a child and asks her friend Sarah to donate her some of her eggs.

The show fails to satisfactorily find the balance between biology lesson and an examination of how those who cannot conceive without help are treated and quizzed. But there is undoubted clout in the way Holmes uses clear plastic tubes as aerial equipment, highlighting the way that conception becomes medicalised.

Australian company Circa has a big following in Edinburgh, but this year the company has scaled down and are presenting a circus show for children. Wolfgang (Underbelly Circus Hub, until 25 August) begins with a young woman facing celebrating her birthday alone. But then she puts on a Mozart record for solace and conjures the composer himself. The show feels slightly worthy as if it is trying to introduce young audiences to classical music by stealth, the storytelling is too slight and has no emotional punch and while the performers are skilled acrobatics they don’t have the timing of good comedians. There are some terrific moments –including a chair balancing sequence – but the show underestimates both its performers and its audience when it keeps opting for silliness over skill.

Casus announced their arrival as circus superstars on the fringe in 2012 with Knee Deep. They have never quite topped that and their latest piece Casus: You and I (Assembly Roxy, until 26 August) is not the comeback that they need. The premise is an interesting one: real-life gay partners Lachlan McAuley and Jesse Scott explore their own relationship over the course of a rainy day in their suburban living room. They fill the time doing tricks to entertain each other or trying on different gay identities and clothes like kids plundering the dressing up box.

But it’s all just a bit teeth-gratingly nice. Excitement rises when Scott swings his partner in dizzying circles using a hand loop, and the pair’s prowess is demonstrated with hand balancing and on the trapeze. But it never pulls back the curtains on the reality of their relationship. There is a moment when McAuley does a disappearing trick which heralds something a little darker, but the show always disguises rather than reveals, and the refusal to open up on stage ultimately renders You and I mundane even with its final impressive chair balancing act.

Chair balancing is seen everywhere in circus shows this year and it also pops up in Casting Off (Assembly George Square Gardens, until 26 August), a quirkily enjoyable intergenerational performance featuring cast members ranging in age from 29 to almost 60 who play three characters called Knit, Slip and Pearl.

If this show has a message it is that handstands can make you happy, and if it never quite feels fully knitted together there is much to enjoy particularly in the way circus tricks are knowingly used as a metaphor for finding yourself and the balance in life.

It also constantly undercuts stereotypes, particularly about women, employing the slyest of humour. Almost OAPs are not supposed to do feats demanding remarkable strength and balance and yet here we watch three generations of women finding both their voices and using their strength to support each other as they create human towers. At a time when old and old often eye each other with suspicion this delightfully hand-crafted show (the costumes are all knitted) celebrates the generations working together using their individual strengths to benefit all.

“My name is Jess Love and I am an alcoholic,” begins the Australian performer at the start of Notorious Strumpet & Dangerous Girl (Summerhall, until 26 August). Framed as an AA meeting which comes complete with tea and biscuits, Love’s ambitious show offers a performer who is prepared to lay herself bare, in many different ways.

Love is the dangerous girl of the title – and she proves it, not just with a clownish drunken trapeze act but in her account of a life lived at 90 miles an hour with no brakes. But could her behaviour – so different from that of the rest of her Christian missionary family – have its genetic roots in her early 19th-century ancestor Julia Mullins? Mullins was transported thief who the authorities dubbed a “notorious strumpet” for her repeated wanton, drunken behaviours.

The show gets slightly lost as it plunges into a sequence of genetic bingo, but there is so much to like in this bold, brave piece and if you like nothing else you will love Love’s dazzling hula hooping in which the rings gleam like circular prison bars keeping her caged and dangerous. Mullins eventually found happiness. The engaging Love makes you want the same for her.

Tickets: 0131 226 0000; www.edfringe.com