Review: Extra-Ordinary ****

At Theatre in the Mill, Bradford

An hour-long performance piece during which the audience watches home videos of the creator and star of the show as a child.

Self-indulgent? It certainly could be and you'd be excused for assuming so.

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However, when Lucy Hind (the star of the home videos) is challenged on stage by a second performer, this piece opens up and reveals itself as a moving and beautiful piece of work that is as raw and honest as anything you might see on stage.

Extra-Ordinary began its life as a scratch performance in this same theatre last year. The audience was bowled over by the piece and Arts Council cash helped develop it into this new piece.

Lucy Hind and Dave Toole play caricatures of themselves, keeping their own names on stage.

The show's premise is that Lucy has inherited some money and has decided to spend it on this performance.

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She has hired Dave Toole, a dancer much acclaimed for roles with companies including Candoco and DV8, to perform the two hander.

The show does not go well and we watch as the performance unravels, along with the personalities of the two performers on stage.

When the moment of unravelling happens the audience is left watching the shells of two human beings. We then see them slowly connect with each other.

The comedy is brilliantly pitched and when the two performers lay into each other, there is a power and emotional intensity about it that creates an atmosphere that's quite – extraordinary.

Hull Truck Theatre, May 5.

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