Russian Season @ Assembly Roxy: Hangman and Settimana

The possibility of seeing five Russian shows in a single day may be tempting, but the overall impact of the Assembly Roxy's programming of works by Theatre Do, Lidia Kopina & Veronika Berashevich Project, Akhe and Derevo is best experienced in short bursts. Derevo's Mefisto Waltz is unsurprisingly the most impressive - the company have been carving physical theatre in their own image for more than a decade - but both Theatre Do (Hangman) and Lidia Kopina and Veronika Berashevich Project (Settimana) are worth a visit for fans of the dark sensibility.

Hangman has more immediate substance, a series of anarchic sketches that poke at the way language can be used to obscure or deceive. From the first scene, when a comedy trio based on the three wise monkeys guess the letters in the children's game, through to episodes that take a more sinister twist, the company bounce and clown their way through a lively satire on the slip between meaning and lip.

>Lidia Kopina and Veronika Berashevich are more recognisably dance: a saxophone throws down with an electronic score, a dancer acts out the cycle of life: clearly in the tradition of Derevo, where the discipline of dance is matched by a free, imaginative take on movement vocabularies. It's twisted, at times painful, but satisfying and visceral, appropriately late in the night with a dream-like atmosphere.

Neither show can be approached lightly: Do are frenetic and intense, Settimana is uncompromising. Do feel a little dated - the content is timeless but does hold heavily to a traditional make up and style. Perhaps ones for a connoisseur rather than a casual viewer, these Russians are establishing a heritage in the most contemporary of theatrical forms, the physical.