Escape from the Pantosphere

December is both one of theatre's healthiest months – the audience for pantomime is usually large and diverse – but also one where the range of events is painfully limited. Fortunately for alternative theatre fans, a few occult gems slip beneath the radar. From a meditation on the body at celebrated performance friendly nightclub Torture Garden, through a seasonal twist on a monthly favourite, an unashamedly feminist devised drama and to a Fringe smash starring bouncing men in their night clothes, there are other options to the classic Winterval night out.

80.1 is the latest offering from ConFab, a self-funded company driven by the imagination of sometime poet, performer and writer Rachel Jury. LIke much of Jury's work, 80.1 is consciously engaged, examining the question of aging from a female perspective. In sharp contrast, The Pajama Men reprise their surprise August hit, bringing their mash-up of silly clowning and imaginative movement to the Òran Mór. Closer to comedy than most dance, they are a warm reminder that not all physical theatre needs to be serious.

Words Per Minute promises a festive special at The Arches (as always, they occupy the foyer on the second Sunday of the month) – their past guests have ranged from Skinny favourite Alan Bisset, to musical maverick Iain Campbell – while Mischief La Bas are destroying Christmas jollity every weekend around George Square, through the Dreary Shoppers, a Nervous Forest and Dim Kings looking for any baby, divine or not.

Perhaps the least festive offering this December – but the most intriguing – appears, like the birth of the Gnostic Christ, in the Caves. A sign of TortureGarden Edinburgh's growing confidence, the visit of Suka Off from Poland makes the connection between their erotic cabaret and a more theatrical live art physicality. "We’re planning to show WHITE ROOM Xtracts – one of our most popular performances," they explain. "It has even been used in an Italian film Nel Nome del Male. The story takes place in a laboratory inhabited by a doctor carrying out experiments on a patient, a broken ballerina, locked in the white room."

The connection with TG demonstrates how the club is far more than a simple dance night or even fetish gathering: Suka Off follow previous guest stars like Franco B and Ron Athey into more sophisticated analysis of the body.  "Just because we use a lot of nudity doesn’t mean that all we do is erotic or sexual," they continue. "We have some very explicit or even pornographic projects. But many of our stage performances are not intended to be erotic. If some people think they are, it’s because they read them that way. And of course they are free to do so, because we give our audience full freedom of interpretation."

This might be a long way from Jim Davidson at the Pavillion, but one of the pleasures has always been the Saturnalian aspect of disorder and levity. In different ways, these alternative Christmas pleasures celebrate this licence.