Review from: Underbelly Circus Hub, Edinburgh Festival Fringe; 16th August 2025
Circa: Wolf is a collaboration between Australian giants of contemporary circus, Circa, and Berlin’s Chameleon Theatre. Wolf is just under a year old as a production, and was developed in Berlin at Chameleon’s venue. The last time Circa came to Edinburgh Fringe, they presented the near flawless Humans 2.0, a show that left me speechless for a good twenty minutes afterwards. I’m curious and eager to see how this piece will compare. I take my seat in the packed-out Lafayette tent in Underbelly’s Circus Hub, a big top with substantial staging inside, plus copious amounts of dry ice fog help to create a club atmosphere, despite the hot sunny afternoon outside.
Appearing from the fog, ten performers dart out onto the stage, clad in figure-hugging suits in nude and black. They dash at full speed until they freeze on the spot, often just passing the next performer. The wolf personas begin to show up, in feral movements and wild glares. One of Circa’s signature traits is that their tumbling almost always has silent landings, and tonight is no exception. The cast are liquid and soundless in their movements. The choreography in the opening scenes includes many deliberate falls, which demand a high level of skill to execute. Steeped in dance culture and soundtracked by techno (DJ Ori Lichtik), it definitely feels like the sweaty underbelly of Berlin’s club scene. Red lighting floods the stage, and the initially chaotic interactions of the first half phase into strong, co-ordinated group work, symbolising the wolf pack working together.
We are treated to some stellar moments of group acrobatics. Early in the show, we see one acrobat basing for five of the cast. Equally striking is a move called the Martini Glass, where three flyers create the glass shape and then break apart into suspended front splits – developed with Georgia Webb of Gravity and Other Myths in early show development. Banquine moves are carried out with the bases at the top of two-highs. With the exception of a couple of awkward landings (we’re in the third week of their run, so probably to be expected), the standard of the acrobatics is very high. A highlight is Holly Rose Boyer’s floor solo, tumbling in a classic gymnastic style that is silky smooth. A furious and frenetic straps routine showcases the impressive stamina and power of Christina Zauner, who blends angular rhythmic movements in to expand the straps vocabulary. Jon Bonaventura’s rope act gains the added nuance of being attached to a pulley rather than a fixed point, allowing for counterweighting.
More experimental than the already innovative acrobatics, the production fuses together several styles of dance along with circus, in a way that is undoubtedly challenging to perform. Undulating dance movements chain neatly into becoming a rigid flyer shape and back into character work, as the performers move between partner acrobatics and dance choreography.
Despite plenty of great ingredients, I didn’t love this show as much as I wanted to. Perhaps this is the curse of the extremely high skill level of acrobatics that Circa bring: in comparison the dance elements and characterisation can sometimes feel repetitive. Or perhaps I just loved Humans too much and can’t help but compare it. Either way, Circa’s finely tuned group acrobatics delivery is always captivating to watch. It’s also heartening to see director Yaron Liftschitz – and a company as established as Circa – continuing to seek out new collaborations and taking risks, whilst selling out the biggest venues for circus at the Fringe.
CREDITS:
Director and Stage Design- Yaron Lifschitz
Sound Designer- Ori Lichtik
Lighting Design- Alex Berlage
Costume Design- Libby McDonnell
Performed by Jon Bonaventura, Holly-Rose Boyer, Helga Ehrenbusch, Chelsea Hall, Sam Letch, Laya Mauelshagen, Oscar Morris, Daniel O’Brien, Joshua Strachan, Christina Zauner.
