YOAH is the returning work from contemporary Japanese circus company Cirquework, back at the Adelaide Fringe after an award-winning season in 2024. It’s a big-top production with amazing visual effects, a thumping soundtrack, and impressive physical acts from the five-strong team.

These high-tension acts are accompanied by bold visuals projected to a screen behind them, vast moving lines and particles that are expertly timed to match the movements of the acrobats and jugglers.

It’s all very precise and expertly delivered, though aside from the intermittent narrative propelled through the presence of a young woman hunted by four masked warriors, it’s a little soulless. It doesn’t engage emotionally as much as anticipated, and its story is stretched to fill the hour. However, the acts remain an incredibly impressive spectacle for the whole family.