Review: OH OH

Fringe favourites Compagnia Baccalà are back in Edinburgh with more buffoonery and clownery. The Swiss-Sicilian duo of Camilla Pessi and Simone Fassari – who ran away from the circus to start performing as a duo – first brought their long-running Pss Pss here in 2014. Aside from a penchant for a doubled onomatopoeic name, OH OH brings back the whimsy, acrobatic flair and physicality of Pss Pss to the delight of the Fringe audience. 

OH OH is proper old school clowning. The two performers nod in look and style to Buster Keaton and the Italian clowns that pepper the films of Fellini. The show opens with Fassari sitting in a sooty, ill-fitting yet well-made suit much like Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp as Pessi descends from a ladder in the first of many feats of impressive acrobatics. 

The duo are a fun dynamic; the slightly grumpy but sweet older man against the inquisitive almost pigeon-like in movement younger Pressi character. Both performers’ physicality and storytelling are excellent and keep the audience enrapt with an hour where not a word is spoken. The gags and sketches are classics of clowning: balance routines lead into a gymnastic throwing display with tinfoil balls before the duo show off their musical ability by playing a lament on a concertina and cornet. There are a couple of wobbles and resets here and there as is to be expected in a performance of agility like this, especially in the first few days of the show.

With a mid-afternoon slot, OH OH’s audience has a large under 10s faction. All of them seem wrapped in the performance, something that is impressive for a non-verbal and, in many ways, very classical show. This is a show with broad appeal, a spectacle with a heart.