Once you have managed to find the section of railway bridge which forms the venue, you are greeted by an air hostess whose colleague demonstrated the safety regulations while abseiling down the side of the bridge. You are ushered into the paper interior of an aircraft, where you are fed peanuts as the plane takes off. For a deafening and disconcerting five minutes, and in total darkness, the plane then screams towards the earth and finally crashes, You tear your way through the paper walls and find yourself in a l large cave-like space where a few survivors (the performers) roll about on wooden wheels which they have landed. Unable to escape, the semi-clown like performers, who rarely speak try to survive. A toaster, plugged into the ceiling warms them and a slimy substance, which makes them obese, feeds them.

By using television screens, music, dance, installation, acrobatics, model planes and oranges, shunt creates a wacky, inventive and charming world. The cast is essentially a chorus with little to distinguish one performer from another and the production which lasts just over an hour, is at times as much a piece of installation art as it is theatre. There are moments when it’s unclear what they’re up to and moments when the ideas are better than their execution; they might have also paid more attention to the world they’ve created and fewer gimmicks (like the abseiler). But this is an extremely promising young company and the show is a refreshing delight.

Craig Higginson

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