Exit - Edinburgh Fringe 2026

EXIT

★★★★★ No deeper meaning required. Just four brilliant bodies, ingenious apparatus and the sheer joy of seeing what humans can create.

Four great-looking guys, winning smiles and beautifully composed work.

There is something wonderfully satisfying about EXIT. From the moment the four performers appear, Circumstances’ Belgian circus artists - Harrison Claxton, Luuk Brantjes, Christopher McAuley and Samuel Rhyner - have you in their hands. Choreographed by Piet Van Dycke, this is circus and dance at its most elegant, playful and precise.

I loved the evenness of the tempo. There is a kind of gentle relentlessness to the work: it keeps moving, keeps shifting, keeps surprising, without ever feeling rushed. The four performers have an extraordinary physical rapport, propelling, catching, climbing, balancing and smiling their way through some seriously impressive circus.

And then there is the apparatus. The entire theatre is used ingeniously, while the revolving walls and doors reveal just how much fun can be had with a piece of architecture. I suspect the younger members of the audience may leave wondering what else they could possibly do with a door.

There is a satisfying visual layer here too in the costuming: a variation on workwear in shades of green, blue, grey and tan. The acrobats appear and reappear in different combinations, sometimes seemingly emerging from nowhere, adding to the constantly shifting picture and the pleasure of watching four bodies become a moving composition.

There are no deeper meanings required here. Sometimes you can simply sit back and be in awe, yet again, of what humans can create when skill, imagination and bodies are put to work together.

And at its 10.30am timeslot, is a terrific heart-starter for the day. Wake up, walk into ZOO Southside, and watch four exceptionally talented humans make the seemingly impossible look like enormous fun.

A show for everyone. A sheer pleasure to watch.

Review by Kate Gaul