Gym Party @ The Studio, Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, 4-5 Apr

Finally, Made in China bring their hugely successful Gym Party to the Northwest. It's about time. Gracing the Royal Exchange Studio with a characteristically lo-fi meditation on our society's obsession with competition and winning, Made in China promise a weekend of vim, honesty and pain – both mental and physical (neither, thankfully, yours).

A noisy, boisterous and hugely talented company, specialising in devised theatre that balances precariously on the precipice of performance art, Made in China are masters of audience interaction. Perhaps best known for their outdoor spectacular, Get Stuff Break Free, performed atop the National Theatre’s roof as part of their 2012 Inside Out Festival, they have long been attracting attention from the right sort of people. So what can we expect from Gym Party? More than its three-syllable title suggests? The performers appear in a stark-white ensemble of vest and shorts – reminiscent of an old-fashioned gym kit that most of us thankfully avoided. But there ends the allusion. Essentially, this is a show in which the performers invite the audience (albeit not so politely) to judge them in their endless quest to win. If they fail, they are not just going to beat themselves up, but beat one another up, too.

The obvious point of reference is reality TV contests (although some of you may make the more sophisticated connection to those Belgian provocateurs, Ontroerend Goed), as the three performers compete to stuff as many marshmallows into their mouths as they can. They do it as if they might never fill the terrible void inside. Who can maintain the perfect Macarena with a book balanced on their head? You decide. As audience members, we are all drawn into the game and compromised – because when it comes down to it, we all want to be on the winning team. Nobody likes a loser. [Alecia Marshall]