It’s five years since I last saw this unusual company. Their show at the Pegasus was a delight.
The first half consists of six separate works cleverly linked by having the performers make small dramas out of placing the required props, or removing those left from the previous piece. This produces a seamless sequence, each piece flowing into, yet contrasting, with the others.
The opener, Page One, is a new work, in which we meet five of the cast in a series of tender duets to two Schubert lieder. I found this piece quite moving, not simply because of the beauty of the music, but because the personalities of the dancers come through in such a likeable way. Beach Boys has three lads in red swimming-shorts and shades, posing, with a degree of smiling self-mockery. Then they roll out a red carpet for the entrance of Daisy Garrett in one of the evening’s highlights.
Dressed as a 1930s film star in a huge hat and sunglasses she dances while photographing herself (with a very up-to-date digital camera).
My Life in Flowers sees Mark Barber as a frustrated office worker returning home and giving vent to his passion by hurling roses around the stage, after which Nick McKerrow, wearing one high-heeled woman’s boot and one man’s shoe, performs his own remarkable solo, in which, trapped and almost invisible in a black stretch costume, he hints at different layers of his sexuality.
The first half closed with The Divine Splashette, a send-up of a 1950s aqua show, featuring the hilarious Hannah Dempsey, equipped with a full watering-can, performing in a tin bath — innocence with a naughty, knowing smile.
T4Two completed the show. Its subject: should we try to purge the human gene pool of undesirable traits and characteristics? The dancers wore grossly figure-distorting padded body-stockings, and made a decent attempt at a question they take seriously, but with humour.
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