Showing @ NoFit State Big Top, Edinburgh until Mon 25 Aug @ times vary
Visually stunning, Bianco is a performance that awes and inspires as it happens above, beside and around its audience. Reinventing contemporary circus once again, NoFit State’s stand up and walk-around production is spectacular, simultaneously assaulting and caressing the senses to leave you feeling giddy.
Born in 1986 as a reaction to the contemporary political climate, NoFit State is a company that balances spectacular artistic expression with a strong social ethos. It is a company that operates smoothly as a whole, each of its parts finely in tune with one another.
Bianco expresses this delicate balance from the physical logistics of the show to its overall aesthetic. The company uses a traditional counter-balancing technique, with other members of the cast attached to the pulley system, rushing up and down the scaffold poles with impressive precision. This is one of the practices for which the company is famous, demonstrating the transparency and fluidity with which they work. Dramatic and ruckus acts are tempered with soulful and sensitive ones, and the live band accompanying the whole show switches smoothly from jazzy tune to modern electronica. The narrative is anti-linear and constantly changing, enveloping you in the travelling heritage of the show and company.
The audience is allowed, for one night only, to become part of this bewitching and fascinating ensemble. After the excitement and intensity of it all, reality seems dull and flat. You’ll be left with an over-powering desire to run away and join the circus.