Theatre & Performing Arts
The Pieces: A Circus of Impossible Structures September 12, 2026
★★★★★ “Shot straight into the top shows I’ve ever seen.” — The Voice
★★★★★ “Every move across the stage or up the frame feels new.” — The Stage
★★★★ “The use of the ladders is extraordinary, and the possibilities feel limitless.” — Broadway Baby
Fresh from a critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Aloft Circus Arts brings The Pieces home to Chicago for one night only.
Six extraordinary circus artists. Seven massive metal ladders. And one problem: none of the pieces can stand on its own.
Created and directed by Aloft founder Shayna Swanson, The Pieces transforms a collection of towering, custom-built metal frames into an ever-changing playground for breathtaking acrobatics, aerial work, balancing, juggling, and ensemble movement. The performers climb them, carry them, topple them, catch them—and each other—as the structures shift from ladders to walls to precarious towers and back again.
Inventive, moving, and spectacularly physical, The Pieces is contemporary circus about what happens when we discover that standing on our own isn’t always the goal.
Following its world premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe, critics awarded the show 4 and 5 stars:
★★★★★ “This Fringe marks my eighth as a reviewer, and The Pieces by Aloft has shot straight into the top shows I’ve ever seen.” — The Voice
★★★★★ “The Pieces seems to recycle nothing – every move across the stage or up the frame feels new.” — The Stage
★★★★ “The use of the ladders is extraordinary, and the possibilities feel limitless.” — Broadway Baby
★★★★ “The show moves at a fantastic pace… and we’re engaged throughout.” — One4Review
★★★★ “The emotions come across perfectly.” — Ed Fest Magazine
See the show Chicago audiences helped make possible—now home from Edinburgh for one night at Aloft.
