Sean Gandini owes me an ice cream: his company’s show Heka is so captivating my lemon sorbet melted before I could take my eyes off the stage to eat it.
The bewitching mix of choreography, magic, and juggling hits you right from the start, with a charming display of physical comedy and sleight of hand. Well hands. And legs. And other connected and apparently dismembered parts of the body of an apparently solo performer range over a long table. Think Thing from the Addams Family, but with a lot more style.
Ribbons tie hair and shoe laces knot apparently by themselves. Balls appear and disappear without explanation, but with plenty of joy.
This dazzling simplicity and clarity is the hallmark of the whole show, which uses not much more than balls, hoops, handkerchiefs, and rope, to entrance and delight the audience. The seven performers’ bodies are also key: never more so than in a conceptually brilliant passage where couples become a single three-legged juggler, but the fabric of the outfit – and their choreographed movements – make it look like their two joined legs belong to a single, separate person. It is daft, and brilliant.
Interspersed with this magical ballet is some absurdist comedy from Gandini, adding to the surreal atmosphere and casting ever more doubt and misdirection.
This is a perfect hour of magic and spectacle. Worth the sorbet and then some.
- The Norfolk and Norwich Festival continues until 25 May 2025.
