Geoff Sobelle's Clown Show is running at the newly reopened King's theatre in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh international festival, playing until 30 August 2026. The production stages the United States as a collapsing circus — a dizzying whirl through US history, performed by a gang of clowns left in charge after everyone else has left town.

The show takes direct aim at the American dream. Its billing promises "the greatest show on Earth before it disappears completely." At its core sits a proverb that inspired the piece: "When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn't become a king. The palace becomes a circus."

Sobelle created the show and stars in it. The photographs, taken by Murdo MacLeod for the Guardian, capture Jenn Kidwell at the centre of the ensemble, Sophie Bortolussi walking tall on stilts to live music, and Nikki Calonge performing with one of the production's puppets. The mayhem escalates: one clown loses their head amid the chaos, while another gains an extra leg and dances a three-legged routine to the accordion.

The company doubles as a band. Gideon Irving performs on the banjo, Leo Gurevich plays piano under the big top, and music director Mike Dobson and musician-composer Elvis Perkins both perform on stage alongside the clown troupe, which sings and plays instruments under a striped circus tent. Flautist Domenica Fossati's last-minute warm-up appears among the backstage images, as does Sobelle — comedy banana in hand — greeting the cast before curtain-up.

The creative team is well documented. Eric Wright and Julian Crouch designed the puppets; Thomas Jenkeleit designed the props; Maruti Evans created the set and lighting; Suzanne Bocanegra designed the costumes, including the eyebrow-raising clown makeup.

Sobelle is a returning Edinburgh international festival artist. He previously brought Food to the festival in 2023 and Home in 2018, the latter inspired by the housing crisis. Clown Show continues that line of large-scale, participatory work turned toward political subject matter — here, a nation running on spectacle.

The Guardian's four-star review, published on 28 August 2026, described the production as "the American dream explodes over one anarchic night." With the run closing on 30 August, the festival's engagement offers the only UK opportunity to see the troupe before the big top folds.