Star rating: **,p> The grotesque circus has long been a staple of symbolic performance, with the imagery of the big top and the distinctively creepy music that accompanies it instantly evoking transient stock characters and dysfunctional relationships.
The Grind Show, a devised production by TBA Collaborative from the University of Washington in Seattle, begins in a more ambiguous setting, in which ragged figures writhe in circles uncoiling a rope as in some form of otherworldly chain gang. As they move on, it emerges a boy has been left behind - who we know from the show's synopsis is an unborn child, even if the performance itself gives few clues to this status - and he swaps one limbo for another when he is delivered into the custody of a ringmaster.
The daily grind of the freakish performers includes various forms of fighting and self-harm, endlessly repeated, and unsurprisingly the innocent newcomer's efforts to mesh seamlessly into an existing act prove unsuccessful.
Interjections from a lecturer/narrator punctuate the action, and serve as a reminder that this is a student production - we're offered a definition of tabula rasa, an explanation of Schrodinger's cat and an introduction to pop psychology. What does it all mean? "Sometimes it can be difficult to move on," is about all that's offered by way of explanation.
The Grind Show is fantastic to look at, and features very watchable performances from a team committed to cross-collaboration, but at this point they seem to be throwing out ideas in the hope that some will stick. Beyond the striking images and dark themes, it's not clear whether they have anything to say.
Until August 31.
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