Performed by: Brighton Swimming Club, Brighton Dolphin Swimming Club and Horsham Atlantis Flamingos
For those looking for a Fringe show that’s nothing like anything else on the programme, Synchro: The Final Frontier, a sci-fi themed artistic swimming spectacular may be the perfect solution. Featuring routines from local groups, the Prince Regent Swimming Pool plays perfect host to a range of beautifully choreographed, witty and impressive feats of aquabatics.
Formally known as synchronised swimming, artistic swimming is perfectly named because it takes a sport that is an impressive physical achievement in itself and inserts an emphasis on beauty and creativity. The swimmers tonight show an understated mastery over water. They create formations that have the Busby Berkeleyesque effect of humans morphing together to form a bigger picture.
Each performance is soundtracked by (mostly) sci-fi themed music. Played on a tinny speaker that struggles in the swimming pool acoustics, there is a uniquely nostalgic effect. It’s like bingo halls, leisure centres, churches, shopping centres, and it only adds to the site-specific aspect of the show.
The all-female swimmers, announced by our host dressed in a fabulous glittery silver hooded cape, glide through the water with ease, turning upside down, rising out of the water, coming together to form shapes, all with an emphasis on teamwork and spectacle, with some brilliant references to sci-fi. The Brighton Dolphin Swimming Club come together to form a dalek, then the spinning top of the TARDIS as the Doctor Who theme plays; a duet by two swimmers from the Brighton Swimming Club has a light sabre fight to the Imperial March; and in probably the most ingenious display of the night the whole of the Brighton Swimming Club use the full length of the pool to create a game of Space Invaders with the spaceships exploding into splashes as they are hit by a missile in the form of another swimmer fired from the edge.
The most beautiful part of the night is an Avatar-themed routine by the Brighton Swimming Club Juniors. To a soft ethereal soundtrack, the six swimmers form a slowly rotating ring, and time stands still for a moment. It’s a chance to appreciate the smoothness and skill of their movements through water. The choreography leaves room for communication and connection between the swimmers, every part of it giving space for the movements to slowly come together and morph. There is a soulfulness to the performance that the more upbeat numbers sometimes skip over.
It may not be Olympic quality but there’s plenty of dedication and skill on show. Buzzwords that you find in many a Festival/Fringe blurb like “immersive”, “site-specific”, “community-based”, “inclusive”, all apply to tonight’s show, yet this refreshingly subtle blend of theatre and circus emerges organically from people letting their swimming do the talking.
Reviewed on 18 May 2024
The Reviews Hub Score
Impressive sci-fi aquabatics
