Second Coming[author-post-rating] (4/5 Stars)

Imagine the most disastrously haphazard tech rehearsal of your entire run. Lights short circuit, technicians run amock and dancers teeter on the brink of mutiny. And to compound this already fractured situation the audience have arrived! They sit starring balefully down at you, clearly visible under the glaring houselights. This is where Second Coming begins.

“Do we have any lights at all?” pleads a harassed looking performer staring up at a distant lighting desk. These ecstatically amusing exchanges continually punctuate the Scottish dance piece. Disagreements regarding filters overlays the steps and solos. Trundling tripods are being installed onstage during the dance’s elaborate overtures. This is theatrical undercutting in a spectacularly visual incarnation.

As these comic interjections slowly peter out, the dance begins to take hold. Starting with a slow playful timbre the relaxed movement changes imperceptibly into ever more elaborate contortions. The dancers’ graceful grip tightens around the audience. But like an shepherd’s crook moving stealthily across the stage, there’s a further farcical edge to the performance. Rivalries spring up amongst the performers, spurred on by the devil-may-care tech team assigning them all individual gesture cues to begin each of their solos.

The discordant physicality creates a beautiful maelstrom of movement, a swirling mass of conflicting choreography. It’s in the moments of sudden, fleeting harmony that we see the true extant of troupe’s heart-shuddering finesse. Amidst these melodic motions the comedic disruptions continue. The meta-theatrical conceit of trauma-ridden performance is broken and reformed throughout. It’s a beautiful Brechtian dream.

The show is unique, scripted with an unfaltering theatrical flair both physical and vocal. At their height, the dancers’ skill is close to the ethereal, making a muscle defying move seem as natural as taking a breath. These brash, balletic performers glide on a wave of appreciative giggles; Second Coming is an irreplaceable encounter between dance, chaos and beauty.

Second Coming is playing at Zoo Southside as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival until 25 August. For more information and tickets, please see to the Edinburgh Fringe Website.