Chase Scenes @ CanadaHub, King's Hall

Chase Scenes, created by Ming Hon and brought sprinting and screaming to us by CanadaHub, is a high-energy work of performance art. Drawing from a study of film culture as well as personal experience, it depicts an hour of – as it says on the tin – chase scenes, non-stop and intended to cover every possible context in which such scenes can take place as well as every possible feeling they can evoke. Throughout, the performers film each other in turn and from many perspectives, and the live film is projected onto the screens behind them, making the display a work of both stage and screen.

From exhilarating amusement to dizzying physically-felt fear, pace is not something this show is missing. Hilary Anne Crist, Alexandra Elliot, and Ming Hon work well together as they confidently tear their way through an intricate chain of situations and transitions, and are to be commended for milking everything they possibly can out of the concept explored. Sometimes, however, they reach for tropes that could hardly be deemed easily recognisable, and this is where the impact of the piece is somewhat watered down.

Perhaps they knew it was ambitious to hope that such a small pool of legitimate material may be satisfactorily stretched to hold an audience’s interest for an uninterrupted 60 minutes. The necessity of the pre-recorded video in any scenes where this is used is also debatable when its power does not match that of the live footage.

Chase Scenes is certainly refreshing and more than just a novelty, but as enjoyable as the concept is, some further workshopping with a view to cutting down in length would likely not go astray.

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Chase Scenes, CanadaHub @ King's Hall in association with Summerhall, until 26 Aug, 2.25pm, £9-11

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