Icarus

Christopher Samuel Carroll’s latest piece Icarus is a marvellously human, surreal, wordless fable. Not strictly speaking mime, dance or physical comedy, it is a form of highly stylised constant movement to create a strong and clear narrative but with enough ambiguity and mystery to keep the audience thinking.

The play opens on one man’s perfectly normal morning routine, until he walks out his front door to discover a body, seemingly fallen from the sky. Icarus is the story of how that body came to be there. The dead man, our protagonist, we come to understand, starts as a young, naïve man in a far off country whose world is slowly disintegrating around him. Everything becomes increasingly frightening and confusing as he finds himself forced into dreadful choices.

Without a set, props or even a costume to speak of, this characterisation rests on Carroll’s remarkable ability to work an audience without speaking. What compels is Carroll’s extraordinary physical storytelling, pacing and timing with tension and release, humour interspersed with fear, to create a relatable empathic character. Watching is a visceral experience as the audience feels the character’s humanity and increasing desperation. The performance involves an incredible degree of sheer muscular effort and sweat. While the team has tried to make the story as clear as possible, sometimes it can be difficult to follow what is happening as the character slips into dream sequences or delirium, but this adds to the surreal effect.

The other vital element here is the remarkable collaboration with the sound designer/operator Kimmo Vennonen and lighting designer/operator Jed Buchanan, who between them flesh out a vibrant, detailed world in sound and light. A good number of the cues are based on Carroll’s movements and need split second co-ordination between all three – not least because at times Carroll improvises. As far as I could tell, this was seamless (although apparently one major sound cue was missed, the professionalism of the team meant it was completely unnoticed by the audience). Between them, they create a vivid, dramatic image complete with explosions, vehicles, chickens and one memorably frantic cat.

Icarus is a beautiful, compelling, tragic fairy tale made compelling by the sheer talent of the cast and crew.

Cathy Bannister

Photographer: Shelley Higgs.