3 hours ago
7
This Swedish circus two-hander begins with the performers offstage, and what sounds like the high-pitched notes of a glass harp. But the wine glasses here – first six of them, then dozens – are used for acrobatic tricks rather than music.
Stina Otterström is a handstand artist, Arttu Lahtinen is a juggler. Together, they execute a series of increasingly fiddly, full-bodied duets. Otterström’s strength is immediately contrasted with the fragility of this most familiar, yet hazardous, of props. Her first inversions involve holding the stems between her toes, passing them from one foot to the other, or balancing their bases on her soles. Lahtinen gives us variations on the tablecloth pull-trick and the buzz wire game, balancing glasses on planks of wood that he glides perilously close around Otterström’s body. Empty glasses are expertly slid, tossed, stacked and stood upon. Have we no wine here?
This is a restrained hour presented by OLO Company and Cluster Arts. It could sometimes benefit from more of a showperson’s – or even a sommelier’s – flair. The abundantly skilled pair remain demure throughout, just the odd glance or smile acknowledging their feats, an occasional teasing amid their steadfast reliance on one another. For too long it plays in one register, without quite enough variation in Mika Forsling’s nevertheless appealing music. Any notion of narrative or autobiography is absent. That’s not necessarily a problem if you’re embracing a fuller variety of tricks and tones – as in Compagnie Nyash’s remarkable Stoel, with a duo and 15 mismatched chairs that take on their own personalities. It’s harder to achieve with identikit glasses.
If a richness of mystery or ritual is absent, then the fizz among the tricks includes the mock-solemn arrival of a brush to tidy up a breakage, unexpectedly supplemented by a pile of broken glasses. That crunchy noise is much more atmospheric than an earlier recorded sound effect. These shards are eventually swept around the stage to form a striking surround for the final tricks, performed barefoot (eek!) and dramatically lit by Jaakko Sirainen. That stylish sequence would sparkle alongside other cabaret acts – and the wit in the duo’s curtain-call speech shows this pair could create a happier hour.
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At Zoo Southside, Edinburgh, until 30 August
