DANCE, PHYSICAL THEATRE & CIRCUS

Are You Guilty?

Dance Base (Venue 22), until 28 August

JJJ

Are You Guilty? is two shows in one: a double-bill of contemporary dance pieces from dynamic South Korean company TOB Group and choreographer Kim Sun, brought to the Edinburgh Fringe as part of the Korean Showcase, a regular feature at the festival.

The first – that is Are You

Guilty? – allegedly explores the “bystander effect”, the social theory that we are less likely to help someone in need if other people are present. It is OK – a furious, 15-minute three-hander involving a lot of fidgeting and fighting around a trestle table – but it doesn’t effectively evoke any of the issues it says it will.

The second piece, Barcode, is far stronger. It sees a sixstrong ensemble entertainingly explore consumerist culture to a slick soundtrack of hip-hop beats. First, they slide and spin around a set of large black boxes, rearranging them as they go as if playing an enormous game of Tetris. Then, they arrange themselves into a production line, feverishly manipulating smaller cardboard boxes with letters stamped on their sides. In an astonishing feat of athleticism and organisation, they toss and twirl them like dice, spelling out different words as they go.

A mixed double-bill then. But dump the first bit, develop the second, and it would be a sensational single show. FERGUS MORGAN