The Stage

Caliper Boy

Published Thursday 23 November 2006 at 17:00 by Jeremy Austin

Good performances, good script, excellent music and a production that is engrossing in parts but did it manage to communicate the intended message?

Physical theatre group dANTE OR dIE - why do physical theatre groups mess about with capital letters? - tell a catch-all story of the plight of (I think) the mentally ill, with Sarah Sproull and Terry O’Donovan portraying the passage of the titular Caliper Boy from being locked, dreaming in his Victorian cell to being ‘cared for’ in the community in modern day Britain.

Physicality is excellent - dancer Sproull is well thought of in her native New Zealand - and of course shoeless. Physical and experimental theatre companies never, ever wear shoes on stage. And while there is a ‘why am I here?’ moment at around 20 minutes, the overall production is an engaging experience.

Perhaps it is the constant changing of Sproull and O’Donovan as the lead, the other playing a sort of schizophrenic headvoice, perhaps it is the use of the space or the snatches of text that burst through the babble, but something in this piece mesmerises.

Sproull is of particular note in her physical interpretation of both mental and physical disability, while O’Donovan’s babble trickles through the piece musically.

Without a doubt all is helped by ‘cutting edge acoustic folk band’ Left With Pictures’ wonderfully disjointed soundtrack played live. The band is the real discovery of the production. Intriguing and worth seeing.