Circa: Beyond (Edinburgh Fringe)

Circa: Beyond opens with a voiceover suggesting that there is a thin line between reality and not before encouraging us to step 'beyond' that line and discover a world that is 'sublimely surreal, strangely beautiful and curiously tender', an enticing invitation that unfortunately does not deliver on the other side of the line.

The small cast do produce several wow moments as they balance and climb their way through the hour in one of Edinburgh's most stunning venues, Underbelly's McEwan Hall. The most impressive act features arguably the strongest woman I've ever seen, who effortlessly balances no less than five people on various appendages as she successfully attempts to complete a Rubik's Cube.

However after watching the same thing regurgitated in various positions, a man balancing on a woman, a pole and another woman, it just gets a little too samey. Aside from the amount of skill, practise and above all, guts that must go into this show, the content and production values are just not on par. The promise of surreality boils down to the fact that every now and then they wear rabbit heads, and attempts at humour fall flat on multiple occasions.

We're really lucky to have some great circus acts at the Fringe as well as in London, including Limbo at the Wonderground, sadly this show just doesn't reach the same heights as others, let alone going beyond.

Circa: Beyond runs at the Underbelly until 25 August.

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