Review: YOAH, Fringe 2024

YOAH is a popular Japanese circus company, and the show is held in Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows, which is appropriate.

That big top is a big tent, and it holds plenty of people. The vibe tonight was great. There was a mixture of well-behaved families and couples either with silver anniversaries under their belts or on dates.

Most of all, people came to YOAH willing to have a good time. Given that the venue is in the middle of a field (don’t wear high heels), I guess there’s less chance of drunken mates staggering in and a more researched and considered audience.

If you want a Japanese circus, then YOAH is absolutely for you. It helps hugely if you’re a fan of diabolo juggling. If you’re against Diabolo juggling, then give YOAH a miss.

Tone

It’s a silent show, but there are five characters. The youngster is dressed in near white, and then there are the four somewhat sinister, black-clad diabolo wizards.

Here’s how the plot might go – the youngster falls into a strange cavern, encounters the diabolo wizards who teach him the flashing neon art of their trade, and later climbs back out and into our world.

The youngster’s thing is acrobatics on a length of cloth suspended from the scarily high tent. Then, each of the diabolo wizards have their own skills and the leader, you guessed it, specialises in diabolo juggling, but there’s a trapeze artist too, someone who would probably have used a sword if customs had let them (it’s a stick instead) and a very impressive chair climber.

The show’s an hour long, so we get about 10 minutes with each character and then another 10 of more dramatic diabolo juggling to seal the deal at the end.

What to expect

Expect some mistakes! What the performers in YOAH attempt is not easy. Thankfully, the trapeze artist has a safe line, but I counted at least two diabolos rolling across the circus floor.

I really didn’t mind the mistakes, as each one was a dramatic reminder that there was some risk here.

There’s clever work with lights too, although one scene with the youngster behind a curtain and lights being projected onto it just didn’t work for me. I wonder if I supposed to see some sort of clever shadow play but I was at a bad angle and couldn’t see what everyone else was.

YOAH is silent and contrasts slow moments with action. Often, before a diabolo wizard does their thing, there is some meditative action, like swooshing bodies, and then the performance.

Overall

I liked YOAH, but it was a circus of highlights rather than 60 minutes of jaw-dropping action. Were my expectations too high?

The acrobatics and balancing skills on display are staggering. I’ll never stack chairs in the same way again. But, while I do like diabolo juggling, there was an awful lot of it in the circus tonight.

However, how often do you get to see a circus in an actual circus tent? I’d consider seeing YOAH again.