Soft Spot circus review: A feather-light grace
Walking a wine glass tightrope, the circus duo embraces fear and fragility in a delicate dance
Circus tricks and glass don’t immediately scream ‘match made in heaven’, but they have a surprising amount in common. Both require care and precision to keep them from shattering, and both balance strength and fragility, wrapped up in a simple, crystalline grace. You may not look at a wine glass the same way again after this show, from acrobat Stina Otterström and juggler Arttu Lahtinen, but will come away with a new appreciation for its strange, minimalist beauty.
There are approximately 300 wine glasses used in each iteration of Soft Spot, and it’s probably not a spoiler to say they don’t all survive. Just as Gandini Juggling have always made dropping balls a part of their act, here it’s necessary to see some glasses break to appreciate just how fragile the whole performance is. And it’s heart-stoppingly fragile at times.
Watching Otterström tightrope across a line of upturned glasses while Lahtinen pivots the board the glasses are balanced on is one of those moments when you feel as if you have passed through the looking glass into another world. But the show is very far from tricksy in tone. The tinkling, ringing glassy score and Otterström’s superhuman calm give it the feel of balletic poetry. Mesmerising.
Soft Spot, Zoo Southside, until 30 August, 8.30pm; picture: Jimmy Sundin.