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Show: ARC and Every Action…
Society: Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Venue: Underbelly Circus Hub (Lafayette)
Credits: Ockham's Razor
Type: Sardines
Author: Chris Abbott
Performance Date: 11/08/2015
ARC & Every Action…
Chris Abbott | 12 Aug 2015 10:00am
Photo: Nik Mackey
Circus-based shows are all over Edinburgh this year, although the definition of the term varies. At the Udderbelly Circus Hub in the Meadows, the performances vary from cabaret to circus, many being from well-known companies like Ockham’s Razor. Audiences in the know will expect high-quality aerial performance and with the company’s trademark of using specially designed equipment.
Unfortunately, the uncertainty at the performance I attended was also linked to when the show might start. We queued the obligatory fifteen minutes that all the Edinburgh venues seem to require – even though on this occasion seating was reserved and numbered. Then we waited another twenty minutes for the show to start; no explanation for this was given. The seat numbering system at the Layfayette is a conundrum in itself; my seat number was 55 and the one next to it was 63, so the man who turned up with ticket 57 was left in a quandary.
Eventually, the first of the two pieces began. ARC used a rig looking remarkably like a large version of the clothes hangers seen in Scottish tenements, with the three performers hanging from it and moving around to balance each other.
Alex Harvey, Grania Pickard and Telma Pinto performed this piece, which was devised and directed by four people. Unfortunately, skilled though it was, the piece failed to engage many of the audience, the performers not establishing their usual communication with the audience. Once the rig apparently collapsed and moved into a new orientation, and an element of risk was increased, the audience did become more involved.
After this thirty-minute piece we were told there would be a very brief interval while the stage was re-rigged. This turned out to be another ten minutes, making a total of forty-five minutes waiting around linked to a fifty-minute show…
The second piece, however, Every Action… turned out to be much more engaging. A single continuous rope through two pulleys is used for a series of balances, hoists and drops, with performers acting as each other’s counterweight and doing so with humour, wit and considerable expertise.
Two of the performers from the first piece re-appeared, together with Steve Ryan and Hamish Tjoeng. The six deviser/directors chose music from Penguin Cafe Orchestra, which was accessible and well-suited to the action. This shorter 20 min piece also had a strong narrative arc and a final image which rounded it off nicely.
Not quite classic Ockham’s Razor then, and the venue needs to get its act together, but Every Action… in particular deserves to be seen.
- : admin
- : 11/08/2015