The Believers, Tricycle Theatre

Physical theatre-maestros Frantic Assembly bring their new show The Believers to the Tricycle Theatre this spring in a fusion showcase of movement, design, music and theatre. Appalling weather brings two families together unexpectedly in a night of catastrophic coincidence which turns into an alcohol-induced cataclysm of suspicion and despair.

This hotly-tipped show, which calls at the Tricycle for the last stage of a UK Spring Tour, sees Frantic Assembly team up with Tony-nominated playwright Bryony Lavery, following the success of their previous collaborations Stockholm and Beautiful Burnout (described by The Guardian's Lyn Gardner as an ‘exploration of ...what happens when a shooting star shimmers, shines brightly and falls to earth.)’ 

Physical theatre often struggles to find its place in conventional stage circles. Frantic Assembly is a company that continually manages to buck that trend, producing work that is genuinely compelling, using the physical to tell their tales as strongly and honestly as possible. 

Director and choreographer Scott Graham – best known to many as the co-choreographer of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (for which he was nominated for an Olivier) – stated in an interview for creative network Ideastap that what they look for in performers is ‘truth’. They use actors rather than pure dancers ‘because their movement often retains a sense of fragility and uncertainty, which makes the moment quite real’. 

This ethos ensures that the company’s collaboration with Lavery is a continued success; she is a writer with an intense focus on the darker corners of humanity, unafraid of unconventional intertwining narratives which can be wonderfully reflective of the experience of movement-orientated storytelling. You are right Scott Graham: ‘There’s something electric about that’.