SOFT SPOT to Make Edinburgh Fringe Debut with OLO Company Circus Duet

OLO Company will bring Soft Spot, a nerve-wracking contemporary circus duet, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Combining object manipulation, physical theatre and wine glasses, it's part balancing act, part high-stakes game of Jenga, keeping audiences on edge as things sway, slip and the moment of collapse is always a second away.

Using 300 wine glasses, sliding wooden planks, juggling and handstands, Soft Spot explores how people respond when things stop going to plan. Through increasingly precarious constructions, real-life couple Stina Otterström and Arttu Lahtinen create a shifting landscape of unstable towers, shaking wine glass structures and near-disasters, where the trust between them and every wobble, hesitation and recovery becomes part of the performance itself.

The performers' concentration fills the room, stretching moments of instability longer than feels comfortable. Technical demands require extreme focus where adrenaline must be carefully channelled and mastered, so performing in front of an audience makes it all the more fragile. As glasses tremble and everything threatens to give way, the show shares the excitement of getting as close as possible to the moment of failure.

Set amongst stacked glasses being pushed to their physical limits, technical virtuosity exists in constant negotiation with uncertainty. Perfect success isn't the only goal – every recovery and near-miss is part of the live experience, showing how people adapt and support one another even when control is slipping. It's a poignant exploration of connection in a world where more individuals are suffering from loneliness and isolation.

For Lahtinen and Otterström, the use of wine glasses is central to the emotional world of the piece. Everyone has touched a wine glass; everyone instinctively understands how easily one can shatter. That instinct extends even to the soundtrack: when composer Mika Forsling came to the rehearsal studio, the company spent a session recording every sound a glass can make – clinks, trembling resonance, shatters – which built the score for the live performance. By building intricate choreographies around such an everyday object, and grounding its music in the same material, the company transforms something familiar into a source of suspense, danger and live unpredictability beneath the bewildered gaze of the audience.

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