![](https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2530_1471864212.jpeg)
Show: Briefs
Society: Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Venue: Assembly Hall
Credits: Briefs Factory
Type: Sardines
Author: Chris Abbott
Performance Date: 21/08/2016
Briefs
Chris Abbott | 22 Aug 2016 11:58am
Funny, fearless and frequently filthy, Briefs was exactly what the late-night Edinburgh audience was looking for, and the long queue snaking outside the Assembly Hall more than 30 mins before the show began is testament to its popularity.
It might be thought that a circus show by a bunch of Australian drag queens would attract a rather specialised audience, but not at the Edinburgh Fringe. This was one of the most diverse audiences I have seen at a show this year, something which one of the performers remarked on when asking us to celebrate the continued existence of the Edinburgh Festival.
The Assembly Hall is an excellent venue for new circus – good sightlines, easy contact between performers and audience and a spectacular building in its own right. Its actually the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, a fact of which most of the audience were oblivious (“a real old-school venue, this is”) but was not lost on one of the performers in drag (“my mother always wanted me to play in a religious institution”).
The 65-min show, condensed from their usual 90 mins, is a pacy assortment of good circus, raucous comedy and bad taste. The audience loved it, and many were there for a repeat showing. Highlights among the performers were the yoyo player and the trapeze artist with his giant birdbath who managed to soak most of the front rows.
Between the skilful circus acts were some up-tempo disco routines, tightly choreographed, with the most elaborate eye make-up in Edinburgh and some highly inventive costumes; many ostriches gave their all for this show… As one of the performers said towards the end of the show “We survive on people who take a gamble” and that is what the diverse Fringe audience does; long may it continue.
- : admin
- : 21/08/2016