A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts (West Yorkshire Playhouse)

Forming part of Secret Theatre’s five-show stint at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, A Series of Increasingly Impossible Acts is a mix of juvenile antics and angst-infused vignettes played out with unwavering energy and enthusiasm.

Our protagonist for the evening was Nadia (Nadia Albina), a random member of the show’s ten-strong cast plucked from a hat by an audience member beforehand. And, boy, was she put through her paces; both physically and emotionally.

Over the course of the devised show’s one-hour plus running time (no interval), she had to run the gamut, from zipping through a whole relationship to eating a lemon to getting most of her clothes torn off in successive (overlong) no-holds-barred wrestling bouts with her cast mates.

Throughout, there’s no doubting the commitment and dedication of the cast as the show bounces along from one sequence to the next (no show is the same), jumping from musical numbers and obstacle courses to musings about the human condition, with barely a breath in-between (quite a bit of profanity, though).

Anyone now broadly grinning at the thought of this type of tomfoolery is bound to have a terrific time. However, while it’s billed as a ‘riotous celebration of the human spirit’, much of the show felt as though we were simply dropping in on a group of people with too much time on their hands larking about with some props.

That being said, there’s no denying this is theatre ‘on the edge’; bursting on to the stage with a freshness, vitality and originality that went down a storm with the nearly 100-strong audience in the Playhouse’s Barber Studio.

But such a bold piece of work is bound to be polarising, and while many viewers no doubt get a real kick out of the ‘impossible acts’ on display, the overall feeling here was that this is a show played out more for the performers’ amusement. And they certainly had a good time.

The Secret Theatre festival continues at West Yorkshire Playhouse until 27 September 2014 before touring a selection of productions to the following venues:

30 Sep – 4 Oct: Hull Truck Theatre

7 – 18 Oct: Arts Depot, North Finchley

21 Oct – 1 Nov: Manchester Royal Exchange

11 – 22 Nov: Warwick Arts Centre