Anatomy of Fantasy @ The Assembly

Theatre Do has a close connection to Derevo: the psychedelic invocation of mental states, shaven heads and menacing atmosphere mark out Anatomy of Fantasy as distinctively Russian physical theatre. They even share the slightly rough attitude to presentation and eschewing the clear narrative for evocative sequences.

Anatomy is less coherent and direct than Derevo's Harlekin: the relationships between the male protagonist, his female antagonist and the three, lurking goddesses is vague and mercurial, sliding from erotic to violent. And where Harlekin is austere, Anatomy is almost lush: the stage is entwined in red thread, the goddesses become pregnant and the video footage lights the stage with autumnal imagery.

Nevertheless, death looms throughout: scythes are wielded, savage battles intersperse the sensual dances, and the protagonist appears trapped within a mental cube. Both the body and fantasy, the physical and the mental are prisons, the hero struggling to escape under the watchful trio's disinterested gaze. The capricious women - sometimes benign, sometimes aggressive - flesh out the male's passionate writhing.

Despite its opaque meaning, Anatomy strikes at the emotions. Lyrical and sinister, it transports its characters into a world of shadow, illusion and allusion. Thoroughly mysterious it connects the mind's wandering to the body's anguish or ecstasy: the ghost haunting the machine.