Lena, Anke and Romy are circus performers. But as with all professional athletes, there’s an often unspoken rule about their shelf life. As women in their forties, they’re approaching the point at which they stop getting cast as they’re considered to be too old. Show Pony explores how you go forward when everything you’ve lived for is figuratively and literally out of reach.

Performance artist and writer Bryony Kimmings (last at the Fringe with her glorious, furious I’m a Phoenix, Bitch) packs a lot into her script. We learn a little about the physics behind the weightless magic of aerial circus. We learn about the (patriarchal) conventions of circus storytelling. We learn about the inflexible expectations that determine who does well professionally. Charmingly inventive staging allows the performers to give us a bit of a window into how they found their way into their chosen art form. And all three women serve up some spectacular aerial feats.

Alongside the insight into the unforgiving demands of the industry, Show Pony asks bigger questions about women, femininity and ageing so don’t be put off if you don’t normally ‘do’ circus: this is emphatically theatre. Of all the arts disciplines, dance and circus are perhaps the least forgiving towards women as they ‘lose their looks’. Is that necessary, asks Berlin-based circus company still hungry, or is it yet another manifestation of gender inequality? A moment of especial poignancy sees Romy Siebt perform the start of a routine she created twenty years ago and now, lacks the strength and stamina to complete. When their personal lives have been sacrificed to make their professional performance look effortless, what does that mean for an ageing process that will likely deliver all sorts of bumps along the way? The problem’s clearly acute when your life is in the circus but the question is universal.

Show Pony is at Summerhall – Main Hall until Mon 26 Aug 2024 at 10:35