Dance, Physical Theatre and Circus Picks

Hard to Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer

The Lyceum, 21–24 Aug, times vary

Two festivals ago Oona Doherty stunned Fringe audiences and critics alike with her solo Hope Hunt & The Ascension Into Lazarus. There wasn’t a wasted moment in this potent, impressionistic and Total Theatre Award-winning examination of what she referred to as ‘the male disadvantaged stereotype.’ This year the Northern Irish dancer-choreographer is back with a group performance that sounds like a revisitation of that theme, but expanded to embrace both men and women. Presented as part of the International Festival, Hard to be Soft: A Belfast Prayer is broken into four episodes encompassing solos from Doherty herself, a fierce teen-age female hip hop dance group nicknamed The Sugar Army, and two men who lived through the Troubles in a duet staged as a choreographed wrestling match. Addressing conflict and gender, Doherty’s work acknowledges how where you grow up influences the person you become. Earlier this year I asked why she makes dance. Her response: ‘We’re in great need of kinetic empathy.’

The Crucible

Edinburgh Playhouse, 3–5 Aug, 7:30pm

Scottish Ballet, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, has two full-length world premiere touring productions in the offing. The first is this dance adaptation of Arthur Miller’s gutsy, still-relevant 1953 dramatisation of the infamous Salem witch trials that occurred in 17th-century Massachusetts.  The company’s award-winning take on A Streetcar Named Desire in 2015 showed how capably it can tackle a high-stakes theatrical classic. Here the choreographer is the American Helen Pickett; having danced for a dozen years for William Forsythe’s Ballett Frankfurt, her pedigree is good. An original score by the coincidentally-named Peter Salem will be played live by the company’s in-house orchestra. As a bonus Cira Robinson, an outstanding member of Ballet Black, is a guest artist in the role of Tituba. Scottish Ballet artistic director Christopher Hampson predicts that the net result of this International Festival presentation will be ‘dark, gripping, edge-of-your-seat stuff,’ and who are we to doubt him? 

Seeking Unicorns

Dance Base, 13–18 Aug, 1:15pm 

As the Fringe’s only truly dance-dedicated venue, Dance Base is dear to fans of movement-based creative expression. And, much to the venue’s credit, the programming treats this mainly non-verbal art form as a pretty broad church. This year’s roster of shows is as varied as ever. Highlights include Lost Dog’s Juliet & Romeo (Aug 21-25), a smart and sensitive comedy of early middle-age discontent detailing what might’ve happened had Shakespeare’s star-crossed couple not died; Phil Sanger’s flamboyantly queer solo For Only an Hour (Aug 2-25); and the brilliantly dark female trio The Hospital (Aug 20-25) from Norway’s Jo Strømgren Kompani. But 2019’s most unique Dance Base offering might well be Chiara Bersani’s delicate, sensual and thought-provoking solo Seeking Unicorns, in which the 98cm tall Italian artist forges a wondrous personal connection with an elusive and misunderstood mythical creature.

Super Sunday

Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows, 2–24 Aug, 9pm

2019 is the fifth consecutive time that Underbelly’s Circus Hub will have claimed space on The Meadows. This year that translates into two venues (a big top and a cabaret-friendly Spiegeltent) hosting 11 shows from six countries. Among them are Australia’s young and all-female YUCK Circus, which gives bracing physical skills a sometimes gross ‘women’s issues’ slant, and world-famous trials rider Danny MacAskill’s crowd-pleasing and action-heavy Drop and Roll Show Live. One of the best bets is likely to be Finland’s Race Horse Company bring a purportedly spectacular rollercoaster ride through the wild and daring imaginations of the six-strong cast that devised it. A dystopian fairground is the setting for a series of often black-humoured stunts including a double trampoline act, two human catapults and a Wheel of Death. The whole shebang is said to be the Circus Hub’s most ambitious production to date, and that’s saying something.