dance/physical theatre review

The Cows Come Home

Zeb Fontain

Where is it written that physical theatre must start at a snail's pace? This performance takes 20 minutes before it is dragged kicking and screaming – quite literally given its themes of birth and death – into life. Once there, this depiction of a crippled farmer in the American deep south reminiscing about his failure herding diseased livestock is highly engaging. The cast's enactment of the herd is affecting and disturbing in equal measure, stirring memories of recent agricultural disasters such as the UK's foot and mouth crisis. The agonising life cycle of the livestock is portrayed with a simultaneous fluidity that is mesmerising and climaxes in an extreme death dance between animals both human and bovine that is well worth your patience.

Udder Place, 12, 13 May, 6:15pm, £12.00 (£10.00), fpp 25

tw rating: 3/5

published: Aug-2008

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