Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Sophie’s Surprise 29th
Underbelly and Three Legged Race Productions
Venue: Underbelly
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Sophie’s Surprise 29th is an exciting circus cabaret mixing a multitude of art forms, including dance, acrobatics, and clowning. The unstoppable cast delivers high-caliber stunts with a party twist.
Review
A circus is only as good as its performers, and the cast of Sophie’s Surprise 29th at the Underbelly Circus Hub brought the talent. The non-stop high-energy show features acrobats, dance, aerialists, clowns, and a roller skating routine that will knock your socks off. The show promised a party, and it delivered tenfold.
Although a modern and contemporary production, Sophie’s Surprise 29th, holds true to some of the more classical circus ideas. The cast members are more than just circus performers, they bring a story to the stage. This isn’t to say that what unfolds is a thought-provoking piece of dramatic theatre, but there is an arc to follow, and this makes the death-defying acts all the more enjoyable. We have boyfriends battling it out, drug dealers working to infiltrate the party, and transformations that challenge beauty standards. For larger-than-life stunts, we get larger-than-life characters. We see a classic football lad, a glasses-wearing nerd, a face-painted goth, a sexy fireman, and many more. These personas add a personal touch to the acts, creating context for the performances.
The Beauty at Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows is not an easy stage to perform on. The audience sits nearly 360 degrees around the stage, meaning you need to play to the entire space. Further, support pillars block many sightlines into the center. The cast effortlessly met these challenges through clever staging and continued motion. Yes, circus inherently lends itself to this, but the cast of Sophie’s Surprise 29th made a clear and intentional choice to include the entire audience in the party. Moving in every direction, you never feel as though you’re missing anything, even if the main act disappears behind a pole for a moment.
In some ways, the birthday party theme makes sense. As previously stated, the atmosphere is that of a party, and the colorful production helps create unescapable joy. However, with that said, I’m not sure the birthday of it all comes through. A ‘Sophie’ is chosen each night as a way to initiate the audience participation, but besides that, it’s unclear why any of these people would be at her birthday. If you’re a fan of musical theatre, it all felt a bit Pippin-esque (although no one was asked to go out in a blaze of glory).Despite the loose connection, Sophie’s Surprise 29th delivers an hour of excellent circus guaranteed to amaze.
