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Barbaren Barbies: A Wild Women Circus

 
Lisa Simonis Review by Lisa Simonis 3 Published: 11 Aug 2024 Underbelly, George Square Show Dates: 31 Jul 2024-16 Aug 2024

These Barbies are fun! As you walk in, you'll notice a podium featuring the bottom half of a mannequin. Get ready to meet the Barbaren Barbies, a cast of five women who will take you on a wild journey through womanhood. In A Wild Women Circus, the experience grows increasingly unhinged with every minute.

Strangely funny and provocatively unconventional

Although the show is structured into distinct chapters, it deliberately eschews any clear direction. Instead, it serves as an exploration of womanhood, capturing the inherent lack of structure in life itself. This is pure absurdist humour at its finest—surreal and delightfully bizarre. It tackles very real issues in a way that is both strangely funny and provocatively unconventional. To fully appreciate it, you’ll need to set aside logic and embrace this disorientating, dark, and passionately strange world.

The five characters don an array of whimsical costumes, including a fried egg, a chicken, a tampon, and a Viking. The show features an absurdly talented cast performing a range of acts: from cross-dressing and juggling to hula-hooping, weightlifting, and monocycling. Accompanied by skits and monologues, their performance blends dance and physical theatre into a truly unique spectacle.

Despite being remarkably enjoyable and thought-provoking, A Wild Women Circus may not appeal to everyone. It is definitely an acquired taste. The performance includes provocative acts, such as mimicking sexual encounters with a mannequin, showcasing a unique and complex artistic expression that might not be universally appreciated. While it engages with contemporary feminist discourse, it falls short of making any substantial commentary.

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The Blurb:

Witty, touching, hilarious and unapologetic. Watch these barbarians smash together incredible acrobatics, dance and comedy with delightfully shocking silliness. Five ridiculous superheroines playfully tease stereotypes and tackle the complexity of womanhood. It's as if the underground Berlin circus scene had a beautiful love child with a Vegas Spice Girl. Bursting onto the Berlin scene in 2022, the Barbaren Barbies have successfully toured throughout Germany, Austria and Poland. This international company is now ready to shake up the Fringe.