This was the UK premiere of Australian Shaun Parker’s new piece, which aims to investigate the elusive nature of happiness. On stage we are presented with characters based on a psychological system called ‘Enneagram’.

This divides human beings into nine basic types: The Perfectionist, The Seducer, The Performer, The Tragic Romantic, The Observer, The Devil’s Advocate, The Optimist, The Boss and The Mediator. Parker has thrown these types into the melting pot of the stage, and asks us to learn from their activities about them as people, and about the nature of happiness.

While the hour-and-a quarter of dance and physical theatre is fairly entertaining, the overall result is disappointing. First, because there is no definition of these supposedly varied characters. We don’t know who is which, and we don’t learn much from them about whether they are happy.

Secondly, although they are physically an interestingly assorted bunch of people, each with their own particular talent, the minimal dances they are given quickly become repetitive, based on a lot of stamping in time to the thumping sound-track, and rather intriguing gestures with pointing arms. Between dances there is one character — a sort of master of ceremonies and, at my guess, “The Observer” — drawing pictures on a black, moveable wall that fills most of the stage. Various members of the cast climb up it, or occasionally revolve it, to reveal an equally black wall on the other side. The progamme promises “an intoxicating mix of ballet, break-dance, roller-skating and highly physical theatre.” What we get is a very small dose of each of these disciplines, although the last of them doesn’t amount to much — its highlight perhaps an expert roller-skater who falls over a lot.

All in all, the piece is entertaining at times, tedious at others, but while there is a certain amount of enjoyment to be extracted from it, it sheds no light on the nature of human happiness, or the emotions of people who possess it, seek it or lose it.