THINK of an object, then make a show with it.

So runs the philosophy of both the children’s theatre company Theatre-Rites and physical-theatre aerialists Ockham’s Razor, who link arms for an exploratory first collaboration at York Theatre Royal.

Ockham’s Razor made their York debut last May and the flexible trio of Alex Harvey, Tina Koch and Charlotte Mooney return for the Easter holidays with a show for five year olds and upwards.

Their all-important choice of object is a mobile, not of the cot variety, but one six metres in height, made from metal and assembled from three separate triangles. Each triangle can bear the weight of all three aerialists, who duly display the most delicate skills of hanging, balancing and moving in the prettiest of shapes as they rise ever higher to build the mobile.

They are joined in their air-borne show by Eastern percussionist Nao Masuda, armed with her own little triangle and some mighty drums, plus clowning juggler Stefano Di Renzo, armed with obligatory balls, and actor/improviser Eric MacLennan, armed with facts and figures.

Di Renzo and MacLennan play the outsiders, trying to find their way into the aerialists’ world and in turn their own place in a precarious world. If Di Renzo does so with silent-comedy cheek and charm, the flustered MacLennan is the more questioning, applying rules of mathematics and science with a teacher’s logic before giving into the gravity-defying joys of Ockham’s Razor.

Thereby hangs the tale of Hang On. If he can’t beat’em, join’em, he decides, as he takes a tentative step on the lowest triangle.

Olly Fox’s playful music and Alex Broadie’s choreography add to the pleasures of a graceful aerial show that is more languid cat than frenetic squirrel.


Hang On, York Theatre Royal, tonight at 7.30pm; tomorrow, 2.30pm, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 623568.