Dorothy Max Prior sees three impressive ensemble circus shows at Edinburgh Fringe 2024 – Circa: Humans 2.0, Cassus: Apricity and Recirquel: Paradisum – all exploring what it means to be human
Legendary Australian company Circa have made Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows their home in recent years. Last year, they brought Peepshow to the Hub’s big top space, Lafayette. This year, they returned with another outing for Humans 2.0, last seen in 2022; coming after its predecessor Humans, which was presented at least twice at the Fringe. But the company, under the direction of founder Yaron Lifschitz, are so (deservedly) revered that it would seem that they can pack out the Lafayette for the whole run, no matter how many times the show returns.
Each new incarnation of Humans is its own thing, exploiting the specific physicality and skills of whoever is in the ten-strong ensemble at the time. The design is straightforward. No set or props – just a white circular dancefloor, and an intelligent and effective lighting design, with flashes of strobe and the occasional switch to a bright-red flood of light. There’s nothing to interfere with the fact that it’s all about the human bodies in the space – an exploration of what it is to be human, with trust, support, balance, and collaboration to the fore. Bodies are tossed to each other at the speed of light, human towers rise and fall effortlessly, women and men base other women and men from standing, or lying, or kneeling, or (astonishingly) rising from bridge position bearing a body. It is mostly ensemble, and mostly floor-based work (tumbling or acrobalance or hand-to-hand); but there are a few solos, including an aerial silks act – the performer dressed in black, using black silks, in an ultra-elegant routine. My only disappointment: this particular incarnation of Humans 2.0 has done away with the eclectic and varied soundtrack of previous versions – the Caetano Veloso sambas and ‘lizard’ songs replaced by a hardcore four-to-the-floor electronic score that I found a tad too loud and insistent. I preferred the musical variety of the previous versions… It is still a great show, regardless – but I mourned the loss of musical variety.
Cassus is another esteemed Australian circus company – they really do know how to do circus down under! The company return to the Fringe – and to favoured venue, Assembly Garden’s Palais du Varieté – with Apricity. The cast of five enter from different points in this large Spiegeltent, moving through the auditorium to the stage, everyone carrying a lit candle in a glass jar. Each manipulates their jar with dexterity, moving it round the body then placing it carefully around the edge of the circular stage. It feels like the start of a ritual ceremony. As they move into ensemble work, we are given a number of clever and beautiful images of a multi-limbed human candelabra. Next, a succession of solos or duets or trios. Two of the company’s co-founders, Jesse Scott and Lachlan McAulay, are in the show, along with three female performers. A feature of the company’s work is the celebration of strong women and sensitive men, and in this show we get to see an immensely strong woman base all four of the other performers at one and the same time; there’s a beautiful and tender trapeze double from Jesse and Lachlan; and a sweet moment from Jesse on hula hoop (hoops are not just for girls, folks!). I also very much enjoy the whimsical solo waltz from Lachlan that turns into a meditative Sufi inspired spin. This is paired with a contrasting balance-walk across a row of glass lanterns to the rear, very much in keeping with the contemporary circus fashion of showing us two things at once, but personally I’d have been happy just focusing on the simple and beautiful spinning. Elsewhere, we have a lovely lyra/cirque act ; a fun ensemble tumbling routine to the cheery 60s pop hit ‘I Said Yeah Yeah’ (one of many well-chosen tracks used with good choreographic sensibility in the show ); a good hand-balancing act; various two-handed acro set pieces; and a very nice rope act that saw two flyers and two bases swapping in and out with breathtaking skill. You don’t see ensemble corde lisse two often! Apricity’s tagline is that it ‘illuminates the power of human connection in times of darkness’ – and that’s clearly what we see and experience here. Job done – another success for Cassus.
Budapest-based Recirquel, led by director Bence Vági, are another company with a strong reputation at the Edinburgh Fringe, following 2023 sell-out success IMA, and the Total Theatre Awards shortlisted My Land (2018). This year, they bring us Paradisum, which like those previous shows seen, feels strongly influenced by mythology. Here, creation myths, and myths of resurrection and regeneration, are at play. It features an ensemble of six, two female and four male performers, all equally adept as soloists and ensemble players.
We start with one lone figure ‘thrown’ into a void, twitching back into life. The last man on earth or the first? Our ‘Adam’ evolves to stand, then moving into an aerial suspended-pole act. As the piece progresses we meet five other characters who emerge from the primeval swamp, crawling and twisting in Butoh-esque choreographies to a soundtrack of eery drones, synths and cello. Each gets a scene on their chosen apparatus – cirque, straps, hand-balancing on high, a ladder-balancing act that incorporates juggling, and a percussive acrobatic act on and around a large wooden box. Each seems to be portraying a process of evolution and exploring the relationship between gravity and levity – between ground and air, between the apes and the angels, with the occasional devil around too. The juggling feels a little out of place (it is always hard to see juggling as anything other than itself) – but everything else works well thematically.
Design-wise, we have a scenography of low lighting and swirling mists punctuated by occasional dazzling spots, and the use of a huge, swaying dark cloth that is manipulated to envelop and reveal figures emerging from the gloom, making them occasionally look like Harry Potter style Dementors, although at other times like fabulous snake-like beasts. There’s a sweet moment when one of the scary-looking beasts is gently patted on the head by a performer. The cloth is used at the end for a lovely moment of transformation and revelation, as our now fully-human characters reach up to the heavens in a gesture of joy and celebration. The soundtrack has by this point moved on from the primeval swamp drones through the use of strings, human vocalisation, percussive beats, and animal screeches and hoots, into a fabulous jungle concerto, in acknowledgement of the inter-dependancy and communion of all earthly life.
Hallelujah!
Featured photo (top): Cassus: Apricity
Circa: Humans 2.0, Underbelly Circus Hub, 2–24 August 2024
Cassus: Apricity, Assembly Gardens, Palais du Varieté, 1-25 August 2025
Recirquel: Paradisum, Assembly Roxy, 2-24 August 2024
Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2–25 August 2024. For further information and to book tickets for these and all other Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows, see www.edfringe.com