We Object[author-post-rating] (4/5 Stars)
Five young women in ratty neon wigs and bulky white boiler suits are dancing on stage. Except is it dancing? They clap, they stamp, they twist, all the while wearing a no-one-at-home expression on their faces. This is Figs In Wigs’s take on contemporary dance and it’s fantastic. We Object is a unique, intelligent show overflowing with acid wit and irony. Think kitsch music, surreal dialogue, wonderfully clunky choreography; then think of me, snorting with laughter like an idiot throughout the majority of the show.

Figs In Wigs’s flair for ironic dance routines, rapid-fire puns and an air of dizzy disorientation belies the current of feminist outrage that rumbles through the performance. At one point, a slideshow of banal objects quickly becomes a triumphant and hysterical deconstruction of sexist terminology for women. One sketch involves a sanitary towel and a bottle of WKD. An inherent risk of Figs In Wigs’s fondness for panache and breezy cut-and-chop scene changes is that their feminist argument could come across as lightweight and insincere. Yet one of the cleverest aspects of We Object is that Figs In Wigs actively refuse to proclaim their agenda boldly and therefore simplistically. Instead it speaks for itself within the tongue-in-cheek hilarity and fashion-forward (or backward?) costumes. The velocity with which they mock performance making, sexist assumptions and themselves gives We Object an atmosphere of bravery and determination that only emphasises the objections they are making.

A few jokes fall flat – the repeated line of “This is not a show about small things” grows a little irksome as the show progresses – and the shadowy lighting set-up sometimes hides their fantastic dead-pan stares. But despite this, We Object is a smart, fun and sophisticated performance. Figs In Wigs are the cool big sisters you never had, who do whatever they want and always know exactly how best to do it. We Object is a very special show that deserves its own zeitgeist momentum and should hopefully attain it. Sometimes we want to go to the theatre to suspend our worries and enter into a huge narrative. Sometimes we want to go to the theatre to shed a few wine-frazzled tears over a fictional death. Figs In Wigs do neither of these two things. Instead, We Object is provoking, strong-willed and one hell of a good time.

We Object is on at theSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall until 24 of August, for more information and tickets, see the Edinburgh Fringe website.