Edinburgh Festival 2009. How Heap and Pebble Took on the World and Won

By Robert Iles - 23rd Aug 2009

This new show from Dancing Brick is a beguiling mixture of performance styles and tones that both moves and disturbs with plenty of laughs along the way.

There is a tragic absurdity in the resurrection of an ice dancing duos career when their canvas has melted (the present action is located in the future when global warming has achieved everything it currently promises to do). This conceit is played out on a wooden stage, which doubles as both the new surface they must play upon, and the location of former glories.

Valentina Ceschi and Thomas Eccleshare, both Lecoq trained, have the poise and innocence of great clowning for the camper moments and are able to conjure moments of transformation and tension in the more abstracted aspects of the play.

Within the story Heap is the more overbearing of the two, which results in us seeing less of Pebble’s own story and knowing less about her character; a shame since the audience wants to equally invest in them as individuals, as well as a partnership.

This is exactly what theatre should be – whatever performance language they use, whether it is through audience participation or poetic movement, not a syllable is wasted and without purpose to the narrative and central metaphor.