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Searching undeterred: The Gift @ParkTheatre

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I recently had a few parcels go missing from where I live. The first parcel disappeared without a trace. The second parcel's contents were removed, and the box was left alone in the lobby. It's one of the things that you have to put up with living in central London. Apart from complaining to the delivery company and filing a police report, it crossed my mind to think about what would happen if I sent myself something rather unpleasant for a future parcel thief to open up. Well, Dave Florez's new work, The Gift, is in this line of thinking, except that the lead receives an anonymous gift of a turd in the mail rather than sending it to himself. It is lovingly gift-wrapped in a cake box from a posh north London bakery. It's a fascinating and hilarious three-hander currently playing at Park Theatre .  Colin (Nicholas Burns) is a little obsessive at the best of times. He doesn't let things drop quickly and is obsessed with the details behind anything and everythi...

Flipping hell: A Simple Space @Udderbellyfest @GOM_Circus


A Simple Space, by Australian-based circus troupe Gravity and Other Myths, is the latest round of circus offering at the Udderbelly Festival at the Southbank Centre.

Between the amazing feats of acrobatics you can hear a constant sound. The sound of heavy breathing. It is coming from the stage. This is pretty intense stuff here and the energy and sweat from the performers is audible and palpable. And in the space of the giant purple cow, where you are up close to the performers, it seems much more intense and intimate.


The title of the show suggests what is in store. There is nothing fancy but some terrific performances by the young and enthusiastic troupe as they do things that you wouldn’t think possible for the body to be able to do.

There is a segment that is a back flips competition where each performer back flips to the point of exhaustion. Watching the performers up close strain and exert to backflip again and again to the point of exhaustion, using up whatever energy reserves they have, seems like it could be considered cruelty to nice young acrobats. But it is also an impressive spectacle.


Other highlights include a rapid strip-skipping and various painful looking balancing acts on each others faces and other body parts. Audience participation is limited to throwing little coloured balls at the performers while they try to remain upside down on their hands.

While the staging may be pared back, and there are not any glitzy costumes (although there are quite a few spectacular looking bodies up there), its simplicity and live percussion accompaniment make for a slick production.

And given the spontenaity of the show (and the nature of the acrobatics) no show is probably the same and worth a look once or twice.

It is on at the Southbank Centre as part of the Udderbelly Festival until 24 May.

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

Production photos by Chris Herzfeld







A Simple Space Promo 2015 from Gravity & Other Myths on Vimeo.

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