Brighton Fringe 2026

Darling

Pivot Point Circus

Genre: Acrobatics, Aerial Theatre, Physical Theatre

Venue: The Speigeltent

Festival: Brighton Fringe

Low Down

Review

I guess it owed a lot  to Bridgerton for a cohesive period feel and background  but was none the worse for that. Having a comic frame to showcase very talented acrobatics, ropes, silks and trapeze is a great way to link the acts and engage with the audience. The engagement began early on as members of the cast wandered amongst the audience in the Speigeltent, while another lady, the princess, of great beauty and status swanned and pouted decoratively against a column. It set the mood nicely, decorous, attractive and full of very nice dresses as befits a Regency ball .

The action though was far from merely nice, attractive and decorous. As the show progressed the physical aerial displays  in silks and ropes up above the audiences’ head, were full of intense skill and effort. Pivot Point Circus have some immensely talented performers and were able to showcase all of them without being repetitious. They are a collective of eight international artists who graduated together in 2025 from the National Centre for Circus Arts, London so they are just at the beginning of what I’m sure will be a very successful series of productions.

They are very confident with physical humour and slapstick as well as the more refined glances, asides and manners of the Regency society ladies – it’s a great combination. The maid that had been wandering through the audience was obviously in a different class to the princess, but the princess tried to take her in hand. This leads to some very funny and inventive aerial work, where the maid tries and slumps in a hoop in the air, and is rather ungainly and not quite right, while her mentor looks on disapprovingly. It’s a long and highly visual gag, some of the time played out up in the air, suspended above the stage. Of course the double joke is that it takes just as much skill to mimic someone who’s not very good at these things and make it look interesting and hilarious as it does to do it properly.

Later in the evening there’s a transformation as the maid has earned her new dress and circus spurs, and provides the most spectacular Hula hoop juggling scene that I have ever witnessed, that builds in intensity as it progresses.

There is also humour of a more verbal kind – the only male member of the troupe has a gentle scene reading from his book that answers everything – I won’t give away the jokes. He then builds on this by having a member of the audience up on stage to scribe the poem he is composing for his beloved, which starts out well… It’s all entertaining stuff and a nice change of pace and emphasis.

All in all it’s a virtuoso performance with just enough narrative to link everything together. Possibly their speech could have been a little stronger and confident in order to carry the story across.  Their physical theatre skills however were never in doubt – inventive, full of colourful dress- in fact the costumes themselves were an integral part of the acts, draping and falling, always a visual feast.  The costumes helped define the characters and they were sumptuous, even down to the layered bloomers that preserved their modesty when upside down.  

It’s difficult to do justice to that overall impact of colour, movement and physical skill in a review but you can see for yourself on their social media pages a glimpse of what they provide.  Here’s a link to their Youtube trailer for this show: Pivot Point Circus Present Darling  The show wasn’t sold out on the night I saw it (a Tuesday), but this isn’t likely to always be the case.  They’re well worth watching and this is a company that I’m sure we will see in the future with more dazzling displays of acrobatics and aerial prowess, inventive costumes and dialogue.   

Published May 21, 2026 by Bill Parslow