Knee Deep is, basically, four people clambering all over each other for an hour. But you’ve never seen anything like it. With strength, concentration and grace beyond human abilities, they have turned circus acrobatics into something closer to modern dance than anything you’ve seen down at Zippos.
To people who know this world, the award winning Knee Deep show will be nothing of a surprise (although no less breathtaking), as Casus, the Australian quartet are world renowned as the very best at these incredible feats of balance and flexibility. That they’re performing in the intimate setting of The Spiegeltent is something of a coup for the venue, even for what has been an extremely impressive return this year. But it gives the audience the chance to get up close and see the muscles tightening and really feel part of the action, taste the danger.
It’s hard to express in words what happens, but to a soundtrack that mostly sounds like Aphex Twin, the quartet attract and repel each other in every way that our three dimensions offer. The crescendo is a four man (well, three man and one woman) trapeze act that frequently involves two or three people balanced against each other using no hands.
It’s all strangely emotional, slightly sexual and has so much tension and release you can hardly feel anything but euphoric after the hour is up. If you only do one thing this Fringe, be thankful that this came at the last minute and you didn’t miss out on maybe the most amazing thing you’ll see all year.
Words By Anthony Stranger
Knee Deep
The Spiegeltent
Tues 27th – Sat 31st May 2014
Buy Tickets Here – seriously, buy tickets if you have the money
Enter KNEE4 to get two tickets for the price of one on Wednesday’s performance