Squish Squared

The squash court is often used in movies to set scenes of middle-class masculinity and/or bitter competition. Here there is no set required; the piece takes place on a real squash-court with heavy-duty Perspex caging performers Joshua Smith and Oliver Russel into their athletic games.

The two young men stroll onto court casually dressed. After a quick limbering up, round one sees them mark out territory in a dance of chasing, racing and invading each others’ space. The speed doesn’t let up and it’s almost exhausting watching them push themselves to the pulse of the music.

But competition can be shape-shifting. At time out Smith produces an apple from his briefcase, cut in half to share. Russel gobbles his portion down gleefully, before realising his combatant is deliberately savouring his, using it to tease out every juicy drop of jealousy.

From here a more collaborative form of competition sets in. A dance-off breaks out along the court lines, both men using them like a tightrope to flip moves. You can feel them loosen up instantly with this more expressive style, and as friendship blurs with competitive urges, they spikily sabotage one another’s posturing, though are always quick to reconcile.

Squish Squared is a sweet, witty look at male relationships, with choreographer Tony Mills cleverly using dance’s most graceful and testosteroney aspects and expanding on them with surprising touches of imagination. And if that gets your own competitive juices flowing there’s a free squash lesson offered afterwards.