Review from: Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; 14th August 2025
A high-calibre circus show made by local artists is a rare thing at the Edinburgh Fringe, and The Unlikely Friendship…, created by Vee Smith and Sadiq Ali, has been a long time coming. A planned debut at Imaginate International Children’s Festival in May was cancelled last minute due to performer injury so, as a local circus artist and enthusiast, I am more than keen to finally catch the show as part of the Made in Scotland showcase.
The stage is simply dressed in sailcloth curtains, with a ring of industrial fans surrounding the centre, where two Chinese poles are rigged three strides apart. An embellished waistcoat and a tutu hang intriguingly in the air. As the audience fill the seats of Assembly Roxy, it’s clear the show attracts an audience of all ages, showing the versatility of Imaginate’s commissions. Indeed, the show – produced by Catherine Wheels – rarely feels like conventional ‘children’s theatre’, as it takes us to gleefully grotesque places through Smith’s emerging tentacle-clad persona, walking a delightful line between Grimm-dark and fairytale.
We meet two characters: Vee, who ‘looks like everyone else’ in her village and is haunted by a recurring dream of the deep sea, and Sadiq, who is different in every way possible and dreams of taking off from the roof of his urban high-rise. While the self-named characters are very likely built from authentic pieces of the performers, there is a layered hyperreality built in from the start, with echoes of the looming phoenix and kelpie transformations triggered through sound design, shadows and switches in mood. We are in the deep, unreliable tracts of emotional memory, so everything is fair game. The lighting design is exceptionally well done, emphasising the polarity of the characters and their internal landscape.
Long renowned for sharp creativity and irreverent humour, Smith has a background of cabaret and club work, combined with skills honed in the UK’s circus schools. Ali is a queer circus artist, cabaret artist and activist, who brings a lightness and brittle energy. Playing on the tension between the characters’ differences feels true, bringing genuine humour – my favourite was a scene where they begin as perfect circus artists posing for us, but Smith’s character is tempted to savage the audience members while Ali pulls her back. Particularly satisfying are the injections of reality in their fledging friendship, through little squeaks of pain and joy in the duo pole sequence.
The use of a rotating, counter-weighted Chinese pole is innovative and the first time I’ve seen this in a circus piece. One of the strongest elements of the show is their ability to build a tableau, with gorgeous imagery. As Ali’s wings emerge, we are treated to moments of whirling backlit feathers amid flying pole. Smith’s shimmering plastic sheeting mostly pulls off a similar effect of strong imagery. It is these images that will stick with me, along with a luring deep sea feeling. I was left hoping the ending wasn’t really the ending, as it felt like more could happen, but what did was certainly worth witnessing. It is as much an unexpected path as an unexpected friendship, and one that yields unusual fruit.
CREDITS
Technical Manager: Bryn Jones
Costume Designer: Cleo McCabe
Rigging Consultant & Production Manager: Edward Muir
Lifter and Stage Manager: Eric Munday
Creative Facilitator: Gill Robertson
Sound Designer: Guy Veale
Lighting Designer: Jamie Heseltine
Set Designer: Jen McGinley
Movement Director: Junior Cunningham
Production Manager: Lauren Desjardins
Producer: Louise Gilmour-Wills
Artist Mentor: Rishi Trikha
Consultant Dramaturg: Robert Alan Evans
Performer and Co-Creator: Sadiq Ali
Performer and Co-Creator: Vee Smith
