Soft Spot review – this wine-glass circus has a lot of bottle

Zoo Southside, Edinburgh
A handstand artist and a juggler slide, toss, stack and stand on umpteen glasses without a drop of wine in sight

This Swedish circus two-hander begins with the performers offstage, and what sounds like the high-pitched notes of a glass harp. But the wine glasses here – first six of them, then dozens – are used for acrobatic tricks rather than music.

Stina Otterström is a handstand artist, Arttu Lahtinen is a juggler. Together, they execute a series of increasingly fiddly, full-bodied duets. Otterström’s strength is immediately contrasted with the fragility of this most familiar, yet hazardous, of props. Her first inversions involve holding the stems between her toes, passing them from one foot to the other, or balancing their bases on her soles. Lahtinen gives us variations on the tablecloth pull-trick and the buzz wire game, balancing glasses on planks of wood that he glides perilously close around Otterström’s body. Empty glasses are expertly slid, tossed, stacked and stood upon. Have we no wine here?

At Zoo Southside, Edinburgh, until 30 August

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