Ockham’s Razor have a history of making the thinking person’s circus. This reviewer remembers sitting in a sunny room in Edinburgh about 20 years ago, sobbing over their then new show. Collaborator is their first new work in ten years, brought to the Pleasance at the EICC. For reasons they’ll explain, the production is something of a swansong and performers, husband and wife Alex Harvey and Charlotte Mooney have chosen to take the chance to tell the story of their partnership since their meeting twenty years ago at circus school.

The company’s speciality is physical theatre on original equipment. For this production, they make use of a suspended frame that they use a bit like a twin trapeze. Both performers inhabit the stage with a casual grace and confidence that’s magnetic. Charlotte introduces the show. They lift themselves up to the frame and take flight.

The piece consists of segments or scenes, denoting different aspects of a life together. Blending aerial work and movement, they recreate the gentle awkwardness of the early days of their relationship, far above the stage, trying to find their way amidst their new companion’s habits and priorities. Their physicality is apparently effortless and the aerial movement is executed with a casual grace that belies the strength on show.

They return to the stage and we see them trying to bump along together in day to day life, not always quite managing to stay in step. A moving sequence looks at the tough times – the frustrations of trying to co-exist with a person with different priorities. And the beautifully touching final sequence celebrates the joyful moments with playful mischief and a captivating ease that makes you forget they’re twenty feet off the ground.

In amongst the movement, the staging and occasional narration from Charlotte explores the physics of aerial work as a parallel to the ways in which a couple compete, co-exist and co-operate to navigate life’s myriad challenges. They offer a lovely analogy of the energy absorbed and exchanged by twin pendulums. Collaborator is a love letter to circus, to couples and to the million little ways that people support each other to help us stumble through this wild ride we call life.

Collaborator is at Pleasance at EICC until Sat 22 Aug 2026