BLAM!

Given its bumper success across Scandinavia, it shouldn’t be a surprise that BLAM!—a blokey, jokey, acrobatic fantasy for the Jason Statham generation—has been turning heads in Edinburgh. “Wordless European physical theatre” isn’t the easiest sell at the best of times, but that’s a misnomer belying the bucketloads of fun at the heart of this big, brash and blaring four-hander set in a soporific Anytown office.

It’s all too painfully familiar: the sterile furnishings, the drip-drip of the water cooler, the swivel-chairs, the Post-its, the monotony. Tick, tick, yawn. Then the boss turns his back and the games begin.

What follows next is a swashbuckling tour through fanboy movie favourites as the worker drones amp up their office games to atomic proportions. There’s a nod to Platoon, Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk – the whole thing underscored by REALLY LOUD RAWK. Subtle, it ain't.

The deeply-entrenched choreography keeps the four actors (and during the final hurrah, the entire set) moving at a clip as they exhibit some hugely impressive athletic, clowning and slapstick skills. Sweat-soaked and adrenaline-pumped, they’ve more than earned the shared high-fives and repeated crowd-posturing during the show’s spectacular finale.

It’s not high-brow, it’s somewhat plotless and it’s hardly going to shift the artistic paradigm, but for a technically immaculate show bursting at the seams with limb-threatening gymnastics, sight gags galore and a troupe clearly in love with their own show, it’s hard to beat.

A standing ovation is the inevitable conclusion. Wham, bam, thank you BLAM!.