Feeling a little undernourished by not seeing enough in this year’s London International Mime Festival, cycled off to the Barbican to catch Zimmermann and de Perrot‘s ‘Hans Was Heiri’. When it’s good, it’s truly breathtaking and when it’s not so good, it’s annoying. How I wanted to get to it with a kindly pair of scissors and trim about 25 minutes to make it the extraordinary piece it could… be. But the good stuff… actually, it’s all about the Ms Green High Heels – a very special performer.
Her effortless aerial work (in green high heels) forces you to remind yourself that you are actually watching aerial work (in green high heels); not a twinge of strain shows in her entire body… is she really spinning upside down on a chair for about the fifteenth time? Her sustained coolness and expert physical control made her sequence within the rotating house the highlight, although Mr Tailcoat runningaround the outside of the house was pretty thrilling too. Super bendy
Ms Red Jacket and Mr Underpants Yoga Teacher have great moments too, Mr Beardy and Mr Glasses are equally idiosyncratic, but the extended slapstick sequence and peculiar elderly preacher were long low-points in an otherwise remarkably imaginative and skilful evening. There are too many fantastic images not recommend it: the strange stilt puppets that eerily mimic the performers’ bodies,
Ms Red Jacket and Mr Underpants Yoga Teacher have great moments too, Mr Beardy and Mr Glasses are equally idiosyncratic, but the extended slapstick sequence and peculiar elderly preacher were long low-points in an otherwise remarkably imaginative and skilful evening. There are too many fantastic images not recommend it: the strange stilt puppets that eerily mimic the performers’ bodies,

our delight when the house spins and splatters its inhabitants to the walls and the moments we find ourselves actually questioning our understanding of gravity. Amazing artists – messing with our heads
.
