Phantom Pains @ The Zoo

This is a production without inhibitions. Phantom Pains is just as happy to trap us between curiosity and body-horror – such as creating a multi-limbed creature that could be a bad dream of Jake and Dino Chapman's – as it is to indulge in the character's childlike discovery of the complexity and recalcitrance of their own arms and legs.

The two dancers are elegant and – if it is appropriate to say this of decidedly female artists – muscular; constantly fighting, falling, and carrying each other around the stage. The performers are trained actors, and expression of body and face is fully required in this uncompromising production without words - even the (excellent) music track is allowed voices but no lyrics. Correspondingly, there's only a marginal interest in narrative, or even normal logic. Instead there seems to be a connected series of archetypal experiences: rivalry, co-operation, fondness, and finally, independence and mutual respect. By the end of the show the dancers have grown from conjoined twins to being ships passing in the night.

For good or ill, Phantom Pains is without concessions. Anyone with an interest in dance will find Moscow Co. Theatre's production thought-provoking, vigorous, graceful and, at times, downright strange.