Dear Martin and Damir,

I am writing to congratulate you both on winning the Nefertiti Award for your performance Holiday on Stage at the Basement last night. It was well deserved, though I know lots of other companies who should have won it instead. Yours sincerely, a fan.

Wrong-footing, double-crossing, provoking and mollifying, Martin Schick and Damir Todorovic enjoy testing the moral high ground. They play with themes of celebrity, cliché, politics and the nature of theatre in a delightfully deadpan double-act. They pitch competition against cooperation, constantly undermining their words and their actions.

Having received their award, the pair bring on a wonky door – the stage door – a sofa and a clothes rail. The makeshift screen at the back is projected on with logos of the show’s funders. ‘This union promises hope’ and ‘art is a universal language’ are a couple of phrases that are lifted from real famous people’s pronouncements and formed into a conversation that somehow makes sense.

‘Let’s do something beautiful,’ says Martin, so they strip down to their buff coloured pants and strike a contemporary dance pose across the front of the space. They then try to look at themselves from a distance, to see what we are seeing; they are not impressed.

It is the non-stop inventiveness that is so compelling. They make everything seem simple and slapdash, but in fact it is clever and thoroughly prepared, in a pleasantly loose way. The element of competition builds when Moonsuk Choi knocks on the door. He is a tall Korean who wants to be an artist. A series of questions are asked of him to see if he qualifies for such elevated status, and he dances to prove his worth. This sudden placement of pure contemporary dance is at first troubling. Is this meant to be funny or serious? Is it pretentious or beautiful? It’s another square in the patchwork of Holiday on Stage, questioning our preconceptions. Another two wannabe artists join: Rosalind Wynn, who can’t do much so is asked to clean-up, and does so through a remote control vacuum cleaner; and Karoki from Iran, an illegal immigrant who can dance a bit.

The sofa being too small for all of them, they have a competition to judge their value, with the audience asking questions. ‘Who has the biggest feet?’ ‘Who can speak more than three languages?’ ‘Who is wearing a Christmas jumper?’

Holiday on Stage – Last Days of Luxury was extraordinary. It managed to be lavish yet frugal, funny, meaningful and engaging. It was the first piece that Martin and Damir have made together; their chemistry is remarkable and their physical differences make for a great stage picture, whether they are in pants or tutu’s or rabbit-head tops. They use their dance ability limitedly; they are a bit of a tease. The company as a whole is great, and hats off to Karoki who had only joined it the day of the performance.

I would like to meet the woman who supplied the final question; it summed up the essence of the show so well. As the performers competed for a glass of champagne, she asked, ‘Which of you likes to share?’ Rosalind stepped up to the glass, and shared it. And the list of credits rolled on and on, and the mess on the stage remained, and that was a great little holiday we shared.