@ Underbelly’s Circus Hub, Edinburgh, until Sat 29 Aug 2015 (times vary)
Down in the Meadows at the Underbelly’s impressive Circus Hub, audiences of all ages queue up to meet The Hogwallops: an eccentric family created by the Lost in Translation Circus.
Each member of the family displays their own unique and impressive skills during the show: terrifying acrobatics, beautifully choreographed trapeze work, strength, comedy, juggling and musicianship. As individuals they are good, but it is when they come together as a group they are at their most impressive, every move perfectly planned and timed to ensure both safety and entertainment.
It is a family friendly show, following a simple storyline. It is Grandpa’s (Eduardo Ricciardelli) birthday. He loves bananas and so after the housework is done, the family get together to make him a birthday cake—banana flavoured of course. There is plenty of laughter from the children in the audience because of the recurrent appearance of the precious banana. However, it is the throwing and catching of performer Roisin Morris who most enthuses the adults in the crowd. There are audible gasps when Morris somersaults through the air, before being ably caught again by Massimiliano Rossetti the circus strongman and Creative Producer, and again when she forms part of a human skipping rope. There is huge applause too for Thibaut Lezervant, who juggles with five balls, and for Annabel Carberry the trapeze artist, who performs not only on a rope but on a zimmer frame!
This is entertaining and at times jaw-dropping stuff, but it lacks momentum: it needs both more exciting music and much better lighting to take it from good to great.