US Edition Professor Brian Cox spends a lot of time urging us to look up at the stars and marvel at the universe. This dazzling show from Brisbane-based Circa reminds us that the human body has much the same capacity to induce awe and wonder. Things happen in Wunderkammer that might well make you ashamed of the ordinary, agility-lacking body you've been saddled with (OK not you, me). But the show equally allows us to bask in the reflected glory of others' acrobatic achievements. It's a giddy-making demonstration of how fast reflexes can get and how, with enough skill, training and daring something akin to flight is possible - there are stunts that defy the law of gravity even as they risk injury or brain-damage.
Performed by a magnificent troupe of seven (three sheilas and four fellas), this breed of circus is stripped-back in more ways than one: the neon-lit design is stark, while the company prove willing to disrobe “down under” to the skimpiest essentials. With the market bustling with burlesque, maybe the thong's now the thing but director Diane Stern could tone down the more suggestive content with little impact to the teasing style, and appeal more to a family audience. Although the opening suffers from too much posturing and empty-headed clowning, what follows goes by in such a gasp-inducing whirl, it's almost futile trying to do justice to it. But among the feats, mention must be made of Freyja Edney, who becomes a sinuous mass of hula hoops, of rubber-limbed hunks Todd Kilby and Lewis West, who float up and down a pole with super-hero ease, and of Jarred Dewey, whose trapeze-work is a hymn to corporeal elasticity. As for Alice Muntz's delightful “tap-dance”, applying fancy footwork and sheer weight to a sheet of bubble-wrap, well, that's one I'm definitely trying at home.
Circa: Wunderkammer, Underbelly@McEwan Hall. Until Aug 26. Tickets: 0844 5458252; underbelly.co.uk