The Girl and The Goat is the first production by new devised physical theatre company SynaesTheatre. They tackle an ambitiously earthy tale – a young woman’s conflict between her passionate affair with the god Pan (the eponymous goat) and the more conventional expectations of her family. It’s set in a loosely medieval frame and the lighting and stage design are strong, succeeding in creating real atmosphere – the dappling light of a forest across three woven wicker screens. Costumes are also well realised: the cloven slippers and woolly-trousered goat especially effective.

The physicality is highly committed on the hard-to-work raised stage of the Warren’s main space, combining detailed mime with ensemble work, though it sometimes feels rather literal in its construction. The company haven’t quite, though, found the theatrical language to fully explore their story. There is careful, sometimes deft, choreography, but all too often speech, when it is used, feels clunky, leaden with exposition. The story is highly sexually charged and the company haven’t yet found the expressive forms to present it as a more digestible and creative metaphor. Sometimes it feels like mime is being used simply to replace speech and this makes the world feel oddly stilted.

There is much commitment here and the company certainly have performance skills and some strong ideas about the forms they want to explore. But there is still some growing to do in terms of creating a rounded performance, one that combines both light and shade, speech and movement, to fully satisfy an audience.