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Review: Sawdust Symphony at Zoo Southside - Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Review By Kate Gaul


“Sawdust Symphony” appears at Edinburgh Fringe as part of the Made in Germany showcase.  This is an incredibly unique production, made with incredible skill and love and it is definitely in my top ten shows of the Fringe. Ever. It has been performed over 100 times already, so it is slick, elegant and witty. Three men Michael Zandl, David Eisele and Kolja Huneck take to the stage with a heap of wood, power drill, hammers, lathe and a bucket of strange looking goop to present this hard to classify but absolutely unmissable hour of clowning-circus-theatre-dance and a lot of sawdust. The three are circus performers from Rotterdam and have worked together many times.  Here they share their obvious love of creating in a number of ways. On an elevated stage of wooden floorboards, a host of tools, timber and elements to support the crazy antics are hidden from sight until needed.


They call it a symphony but for my money this has the scale of an opera.  The show begins with the gents competing with each other to build what becomes a small chair each using three very different methods. Drill, nails or wood glue.  Then they attempt to sit on these chairs. This is humorous and eases the audience into the show that become increasingly bizarre.  Trap doors, surprise entrances and incredible feats of catch and juggling ensue. Oversized nails pop up through the floorboards.  Hammers are juggled. A spinning top is whittled and then becomes part of a mechanism of something much larger. One artist who wears a dress-like costume over his pants becomes a whirling dervish with a Cyr wheel – the activities are hypnotic and beautiful. And serve to move away from the prosaic to the poetic.


The lighting is superbly golden and highlights the wood textures and colour. An evocative and eclectic soundscape underscores the non-verbal action. I would hate to be part of the team who have to clean up afterwards.  I am sure sawdust is found in the oddest of places long after the season has finished.


This is a celebration of DIY, or working at a human scale and of finding the joy in success and failure. On the company website we are told “This piece talks about the human desire to create: the process from vision to construction, the tragedy of work and the relationship between tools and humans. Obsessed characters discover and transform their space and themselves to take the spectator into a unique DIY experience. “Sawdust Symphony” is an intense dialogue between satisfaction, frustration and the smell of gasoline.”


This is a must-see for anyone in Edinburgh.  It’s family friendly and showtime is 10am.  Start your day on a high because this show hits the nail on the head. Literally!

Image Supplied

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