This production, which last year won a Time Out Award when it appeared in a suburban fringe venue, has now made it to the West End proper -- and a welcome event it is. Frantic Assembly was founded in 1994 by Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett, both of whom perform in Sell Out,along with two women, Cait Davis and Anstey Thomas. (All four twentysomethings use re-spellings of their own names.) After two years, Stephen is breaking up with Kate, whom their pal Scot has bedded (Kate writes the names in her address book in pencil so she can rub them out). Ansti has known of the infidelity but has kept mum.
The work begins (and ends) with a birthday party for the at-first ignorant Stephen, one of the presents ominously being a self-help book. The work exhibits some echoes of Sondheim's Company and Marber's Closer but is utterly engrossing and exciting. It is not really a play, but a composite of spoken dialogue, modern dance, acrobatics, and all-round athleticism -- with choreographer T.C. Howard contributing even more than wordsmith Wynne. For a set, there is a staircase, a rotatable closet, and four white plastic lights that can be bounced, sat on and moved about. In keeping with the company's name, much of the quartet's movements is indeed frantic. Sometimes the movements underline what is spoken, and sometimes they convey what cannot be expressed in words. All four actors perform with split-second precision, and the result is absolutely dazzling.
