2015CLOSEUP_UKClose Up is a dance, physical theater and Circus show from award winning company, Circa. It’s chock full of amazing acrobatics, dance and circus tricks – things to make you laugh, things to make you gasp, all with a backdrop of stunning audiovisual footage.

The show in many ways is about acrobatics, as the cast of four talks to the audience about their performance. We see some jaw dropping things – a woman climbing a rope with her toes, a multiple hula-hoop act, and my personal favourite, one I’m going to call ‘elegant chair jenga’. It’s incredibly to watch these four because they seem totally in sync with one another, and like fluid in the air.

I don’t, however, much care for the artsy black and white footage of people leaping around in slow motion, which plays out at intervals on the screen behind. It seems like smoke and mirrors to me. The best moments where when this fell away for an unpretentious, matter of fact approach.

In one particular scene change, Ted walks out in his boxers (prompting obligatory giggles from the group of ladies next to me) and explains that often at this point in a show there would be smoke, lights and music to mask what was actually going on, a scene change. In this case, the rest of the folks are setting up a big old pole behind him which he is about to climb up. Instead, Ted talks us through the specially made, padded clothing he is putting on in order to avoid grazing. And about just how much he loves this act: the Chinese pole. That every time he does it, he gets a buzz he can’t explain:

“I don’t know why, but every time I do this act, it makes me feel alive. So I’m going to do that now and hopefully pass on a bit of that feeling to all of you.”

Close Up is playing at Underbelly, Georges Square until 31 August. For tickets and more information click here.