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Ten Thousand Hours

 
Laura Tucker Review by Laura Tucker 5 Published: 11 Aug 2025 Assembly Hall Show Dates: 31 Jul 2025-24 Aug 2025

Australian acrobatics troupe Gravity and Other Myths return to Edinburgh with their international smash hit Ten Thousand Hours – and if you’ve ever wondered what the human body can achieve through a great many hours of dedication, this show is your answer.

A celebration of collective effort

At first, the performers seem a little serious – but for good reason: their blank faces reflect not smug ambivalence but extreme concentration as they begin to climb onto each other’s backs with feline grace in a tense game of one-upmanship.

Without any rigging or equipment, the eight-person troupe use their own bodies as scaffolding to enact increasingly advanced acrobatics: walking towers, human trapeze, elevated somersaults. The moves are executed with utmost precision yet somehow have a playful suppleness, as if they hadn’t trained the same action for months on end. The ease with which they move through the air is almost frustrating for a ground-dweller like me.

In the background, a digital timer flickers between numbers one and ten thousand – a nod to the years of sweat and repetition needed to achieve this kind of mastery. We’re even given glimpses of moves in their raw, beginner’s form before they bloom into polished, airborne versions – a rare gift in circus arts.

There’s no single star here; every member matches up in skill, strength and precision. But there are moments of individual brilliance: one woman with nerves and thighs of steel returns to the floor to perform various dance styles, taking cues from the audience to showcase her versatility.

If anything, the show could lean into more narrative threads like this, allowing us to feel invested in one person’s struggle or triumph – but Ten Thousand Hours doesn’t really aim to make heroes. It’s a celebration of collective effort, of bodies in absolute trust, where the perfect act is built as a team, one exhausting, painstaking hour at a time.

Ten Thousand Hours was one of the best acrobatic performances I’ve ever seen. And judging by the gasps around me, I’m not the only one left breathless.

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The Blurb:

Festival favourites Gravity and Other Myths return with their international smash hit, Ten Thousand Hours. The creators of A Simple Space and Backbone bring you an ode to the countless hours of sweat and joy needed to achieve great things. Get your tickets fast. This will sell out! 'The level of thought, skill and emotional courage on display is breathtaking' ***** (Scotsman). 'An awe-inspiring display of acrobatic brilliance' ***** (Edinburgh Festivals Magazine). 'A visual masterpiece of the human body in motion' ***** (StageWhispers.com.au). 'Mesmerising' ***** (List). 'Impressive and humorous' (Fest).