Sophie’s Surprise 29th, a circus and cabaret show, came to Brantford’s Sanderson Centre on Friday, October 23, 2026.
More than 50 people attended the show, performed by the United Kingdom-based Three-Legged Race Productions.
The show was staged as a surprise 29th birthday party. A member of the audience was chosen before the performance to play Sophie, and the rest of the audience played her friends.
“Sophie is actually one of our audience members who was selected before the show to be Sophie for tonight,” said Glenn Brown, Theatre Manager for the Sanderson Centre. “It’s a pretend birthday party, because it’s not really Sophie’s birthday, but for tonight, she’s Sophie.”
Performers presented dance acts and acrobatics during the show. Brown described it as a mix of circus, burlesque, cabaret and stand-up comedy.
“It’s a sort of circus, sort of burlesque, just a party for everybody,” said Brown.
Brown saw the show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival a couple of years ago and added that other Canadian colleagues had also seen it, and the group decided to organize a tour.
“We, as a group, got together and tried to build a tour for them to come over to Canada,” said Brown.
He said CAPACOA, a national arts organization, negotiated on behalf of the venues and helped build the schedule, and then Brown pitched the show to his colleagues.
Brown mentioned the tour would continue to British Columbia and Alberta, return to Ontario, and end in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick before the performers flew home to England.
Brown added that the Sanderson Centre aimed to serve the whole community through its programming.
“We are the main professional performing arts venue in the city. We really take it seriously that we want to serve the entire community,” said Brown. “So, we want to find shows that will appeal to the entire community.”
Brown wanted to have something new to enhance the community’s cultural experience
“This was a chance to expose the community to it and get people excited about the future programming we do,” said Brown.
