Fauna

This six piece ensemble’s performance started slowly, perhaps a little too slow for me, but what followed was compellingly elegant and playful. Their skills used with humour and charm as they acted out intimate relationships paralleling the human and animal condition, clinging, grooming and fighting are all played out against a fascinating live soundscape. Their physical exploits are astounding, in particular the floor work, and in the tumbling we see moves that we might expect when done from the high board in a diving competition – but here just feet above the stage! If I have any complaint it would be that from time to time the lighting was just a little too dark and that the stage was a little low for those of us in the stalls to really see their extraordinary skills, not of course their fault.

Theatre Royal Brighton

16 May

Andrew Kay

[rating: 4.5]