The empty men are thick, greyish-white, heavy creatures with googling eyes and lead in their feet, which land heavily on the table-top stage. Their expressions manage to be both gaunt and gormless. They are vaudeville creatures, nearly beheading one another with that old classic, the too-fast-turning plank. They are almost unable to take to their […]

In devised work, it’s the frame that often carries the weight of really communicating a show. In work that’s experimental in form and that draws the audience into its fictions in unconventional ways, it’s the frame that creates and clarifies meaning. Blind Summit’s new production, The Heads – developed from one section of their previous […]

Simone Riccio takes to the stage, dressed head to toe in smart-casual attire, with a peaked cap placed on his head at an enticingly jaunty angle. Then without rhyme or reason, he takes it all off to reveal another suit below. It’s a sign of things to come. He looks out at us for a […]

Returning in the tenth anniversary year of its creation, Compagnie 111’s second work Plan B hasn’t quite the striking impression of the company’s later works (most notably the arresting and singular Sans Objet seen at the 2011 Mime Festival). What Plan B does, though, is provide an artful introduction to the principles of Compagnie 111’s […]

Asian countries with a strong puppet tradition, such as Indonesia, Japan and China, have for some years worked on a modern approach to their theatre, but have found the international demand for their traditional shows a heavy drag on new creations. Yeung Fai has found a highly intelligent way to shake off the cobwebby aspects […]