Show Pony review

The three women wear bright plumes in their hair. They gallop around the ring picked out in lights on the stage. But they are not horses, but rather circus performers, and with ages ranging from 39 to 50, they fear they are heading for the knacker’s yard.

Back in 2019, German circus company still hungry collaborated with UK director and maker Bryony Kimmings on Raven, a show about motherhood. They are at it again with a piece that asks, where do circus performers go when they grow old and can no longer wear tiny sparkly costumes or don’t have strong bodies? Where do all women go when they get older and become increasingly invisible?

The show doesn’t always solve the tension between the fact that the audience is to some degree looking for a wow factor because this is, after all, a circus show, and the fact it’s highlighting how the culture of circus – at least mainstream circus – has very narrow rules about how women look and perform. And that applies to audiences too. Why do people think it’s fine to speculate on what a female contortionist might be like in bed when nobody asks her clown boyfriend if he’s funny in the sack?

There’s some neat deconstruction of circus tricks and an excellent sequence when the women talk about running away from their childhoods to join the circus. The final clowning section, in which they explore the future, doesn’t quite deliver. But no woman over 40 could watch this without empathising and sharing their sense of loss.