Circumference

A sweet show that will appeal to anyone who has had to live with weight issues, and might just inform those others who harbour prejudice towards people of size. Occassionally I felt the sound cues overwhelmed the performer and I couldn't hear her... but that's a small issue. Salloway is brave enough to speak honestly about living in an image obsessed world in a body that doesn't conform to acceptable standards. Some laughs, some moments of poinancy.

Amy Salloway gives so much to the audience. She is a warm and generous performer (not to mention with an awesome sence of comic timing and a great face) and I would go see her whatever she was offering. Circumference is a GREAT SHOW and it is too bad that there is confusion about where her show is....it replaces Dr. Mad Evil, because it should be a sell out every night.

If you are only going to see a couple of shows, this one, CIRCUMFERENCE must be on your list.

I was hooked last year by "So Kiss Me Already Herschel Gertz".

We may never have struggled with weight issues but Amy's craft is such that the audience is rooting for her from the moment she steps on stage. Her bravery in giving voice to inner demons allows us to examine our own differences in light of hers and realize how alike we are.

Besides, who hasn't had a gym teacher like hers!

Wonderful comedic timing, great characters.

Theatre is about epiphanies and the journey to those epiphanies and right now Amy's character hasn't had an epiphany other than that shes fat. Big deal, that's a self-identifier and not a play. There have got to be better things going on in Amy's life than her "obesity" problem; and why aren't we talking about them? Big girls need to stand united and support the example of the beauty they portray. It just seemed tonight that there was a girl on stage who was in fact not ready to face her body image problems, but someone who was legitimately looking for someone to talk to about them. In fact, in the middle of the show a single audience member audibly called out "You are beautiful!", as if to echo the consciousness of the entire crowd; but maybe that was the goal, I can't say. It was about so much and so little and I'm not sure that in the end it was a great message. If you don't like yourself, you are the only one who can change that. Sometimes you have to get into your own head and stop pretending that being FAT is the problem. Let's be honest, everyone has insecurities - but that doesn't mean we should have to pay $9 to listen to them.

Gosh. Looking at "Matt Craigs" review, I am not sure that he (?) and I saw the same show on Tuesday night. I saw a show called Circumference that was 100% about epiphanies...that was totally about a woman facing her body image problems...I mean, wasn't that what the entire play was about!!!?? We see the path of how Amy (or her character rendition of herself, I suspect) has been beaten down by the way the people around her have treated her body size -- we hear men shouting "moooo!" at her when she goes to the gym, we hear relatives asking her "when is the baby due?", we see how a PE teacher bullied her and allowed her classmates to do so as well...maybe I'm really mistaken, here, but doesn't all that add up to a pretty justifiable pot of issues for someone to write a play about, to be someone's main set of problems? The way that shapes a person's life and sense of self? I guess I'm just not really sure here why that doesn't qualify in Matt Craig's mind as enough to focus a solo show on, especially since that isn't the end of the story -- the whole rest of the play is about the actions Amy takes to change her body and her self, and the realizations she has that her body can do more than she thought it could (my god, all that jogging!), and that it's worth maybe more than she thought it was worth. Anyway, I'm not the type of person to write reviews so this is pretty babbly, but because I'm a big girl too, I had to write something to say that Amy's play meant so much to me. It meant MORE than $9. to me, so Amy, you go on sharing your truth in the fantastic way that you do, and I'LL listen.

Tech issues aside, I found Amy Sallaway's show Circumference to be a nice martini of a cocktail. You know: a martini is mostly gin or vodka with just a touch of vermouth. Similarly, Amy's show is poured full of gracious, self-deprecating humour and balanced with some intelligent observations that opens the door for the audience to enter into the world of a person who feels so sadly and hopelessly ostracized from our weight-obsessed culture. She doesn't whack you over the head or perpetuate the stigma. It's a charming, energetic and honest portrayal of a little girl who grows into a fully formed adult that anyone would love to get to know much better.

Catch her last shows. You'll love it and hope she's in Victoria next year with her next great, authentic show.