Making their Fringe debut this year, Barbaren Barbies are a five-woman troupe from the underground Berlin circus scene bringing us a unique blend of physical comedy, acrobatics and sketch. They’re in a fairly large space but this ensemble has more than enough energy and star power to fill it. 

The show’s substance, as intentionally silly and meandering as it is, plays with feminist ideas, poking fun at patriarchal constructs from inside all-male boardrooms and popular fairytale plots. There’s a juvenile sense to this whole production; costumes feel like they’ve been pulled from a child’s dress-up box, often ill-fitting and ripping at the seams, and chapters are read out from a large storybook. It’s chaotic and unpolished but soulful, more like a DIY clown show than a big top circus.

Still, the clowning portions of this show are top notch, which makes sense when you learn a few of the cast trained at Lecoq and Gaulier. Perhaps this is why Barbaren Barbies opt to play the role of ‘lovable idiot’ rather than ‘gravity-defying acrobat’, a strategy which makes stunts performed on trapeze and Chinese pole particularly impressive.

Barbaren Barbies, Underbelly George Square, until 16 August, 4pm.