Edinburgh Festival fringe round-up: All of Me

Dominic Cavendish
Tuesday 27 August 1996 23:02 BST
Comments

Oh dear. One of Australia's leading dance-cum-physical theatre companies, Legs on the Wall, has discovered that sometimes we express ourselves through our bodies. Hence this corporeal representation of the emotional dynamic of a family of four, from the birth to the untimely death of a daughter - with just a smidgen of text and three ladders. A woman screams in the darkness, a harness permitting her to rise and fall to the rhythm of conception and birth. Someone is packed into a suitcase. A baby enters the world, crawls around for a while, and walks across a bridge formed of bent backs. The family members are all there for each other - holding, supporting, bonding, dive-jumping - as all good families are. But their health insurance must be higher than most - mum risks spinal injury bearing the physical brunt of two (grown) children and suitcases to safety as the family unit falls (quite literally) apart. The tacky electronic music and melodramatic lighting only add to this carnival of kitsch; a sort of Pan's People meets Neighbours without the psychological depth.

n Pleasance. To 31 Aug

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in