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Roundhouse, London
There are shades of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast in this darkly inventive piece from Invisible Thread, a new company created by former Faulty Optic co-founder Liz Walker. It's a grown-up fairytale of love, loss and madness deep in the dark forests of desire. There is even a sexually voracious big bad wolf.
Like much of Faulty Optic's work, this show is touched by the surreal, an ability to magnify the miniature, crazy design and a willingness to embrace all forms: video is used to considerable effect. What's new is a strong female sensibility in a story of birth and rebirth that begins with the mating dance of two exquisite, bug-eyed puppets who meet, feed each other worms, build a nest together and mate. To their surprise, pregnancy and birth follow, with the offspring taking the form of a high-chair, a steam train and a TV set. The woman's obsession with the TV set is neatly done, a reminder of how often in marriage a woman's focus shifts from her mate to her offspring. What to do after they are lost or have flown away?
The second, much darker half is full of signs and symbols, and finds the ageing woman living alone in a tower where, like patient Penelope, she is besieged by suitors. Will the birdsong of first love be suffocated by the vengeful caw of the old crow? There is much to wonder at, although the connection between the first and second half is not as layered as it might be, the storytelling is too dense to be easily unpicked, and it's way too long. There may be no happy ever afters in the story, but this once upon a time marks the beginning for Invisible Thread.
