Lost Dog - It needs Horses and Home for Broken Turns, Brighton Dome.

This review was first published on The Public Reviews.

A skeleton sits on an equally emaciated stage, in the corner stands a chicken on a stick, although this one is without meat too. Three poor sisters scuffle below it, desperate to escape their poverty stricken rural backwater. Home For Broken Turns, in this respect continues to explore the Lost Dog themes of dependence, desperation and escape.
Yet of the two shows which make up their double bill, it also feels the sparsest in terms of content, full of funny and well-executed set pieces, it felt a little stagnant by the end.

The second piece, It Needs Horses, is arguably more satisfying. Lost Dog made a name for themselves in 2010 when the piece won The Place Prize, much to the dismay of some critics. The story centres on two washed up circus performers and their debauched efforts to remain in the spotlight. Some critics questioned whether the piece, high on laughs and low on port-de-bras, could be categorised as dance. Humour is often missing from contemporary dance so I imagine the show must have felt a breath of fresh air to the judges. In terms of skill, all of the ensemble are highly engaging performers (Solene Weinachter and Lise Manavit are particularly accomplished), who, much the same as Les Dawson with his comedy piano routines, can only do it ‘badly’ because they can do it so well.

Yet, the fun and laughter belies a darker message about the lengths that we will go to in order to please others. It asks us, how much we are willing to see people suffer for our pleasure. As the two circus performers are pushed to ever more humiliating and self destructive limits to get our attention, the young audience gasped with shock and repulsion in places. Both pieces place the audience in the position of judgement; is it what we want to see? Well, sorry, but I certainly did.