Journeys

100487 original

With slapstick humour, slick movement and cartoonish character work, Mountview graduates Buckle Up Theatre journey through war-torn 20th-century Europe in this charmingly zany but rather shallow physical theatre show.

A soldier, an artist, an actor and a housewife hop on and off trains to find themselves in a series of farcical encounters: Russian roulette, foot fetishism and a well-meaning but awkward breast grope all feature. The physicality is accomplished, imaginative and sharply choreographed with bang-on comic timing. There’s a childlike wonder to the staging, which employs vintage suitcases and folding chairs to imagine a range of sets and locations. The performers slip in and out of costumes to embody a range of enjoyable characters.  

The talented cast connect well with each other and their audience. However, billed as a physical comedy, there’s not quite enough laughs to justify the almost complete lack of dialogue here, and the vignettes are slightly too brief and unrelated for the show to build in any meaningful way before we’re swept off to another location. Whilst approaching serious subjects with humour can often bring a fresh perspective or heighten their poignancy, here the Carry On bawdiness lumped together with projected photographs of families piling onto trains to escape wars can feel a little grating.

The show has already toured internationally, and it feels like it was made with this slightly too much in mind – created for so broad a range of audiences that it lacks a coherent focus and takes very few risks.