During a recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, Britt Lower revealed an interesting connection between the popular show Severance and the city of Bellingham, Washington. Lower, who plays Helly R. on Severance, joined a circus just two hours outside of Seattle while on hiatus from filming.
“I directed a film in 2019 called Circus Person, a film about someone who runs away to the circus,” Lower explained to Meyers. “And in the process of developing that into a feature film, I’ve gotten to know the circus community. …And I joined a circus after season one hiatus. And after season two hiatus I joined the Shoestring Circus.”
Shoestring Circus was started in Bellingham, Washington in 2022. Lower appeared in their shows last summer in the role of the narrator Queen Queen. Then, as she recounted to Meyers on the talk show, she discovered an unexpected link between her circus gig and her character’s work in Severance.
“This circus was in Bellingham, Washington. And I was looking at the map, I was like, ‘Bellingham. That sounds so familiar.’ And it turns out it’s one of the files that we’re refining on Severance. It’s called Bellingham. And so I called Dan Erickson, the creator of the show, and I was like ‘Does this have significance?’ And it turns out Bellingham is the town he went to college in.”
Sometimes life truly is stranger than fiction. “Everything is dovetailing,” Lower said of the coincidence at the end.
If you’d like to go see the Shoestring Circus perform, tickets for their next season go on sale on April 3, 2025. They will be doing shows in locations in Whatcom, Thurston, Pierce, and Clark County from June 6th through August 3rd.
And will Britt Lower be performing in the circus again this summer? That remains to be seen! Shoestring Circus will release their 2025 theme and cast members in March. You can see more information by visiting the Shoestring Circus website.