This is a charmingly odd piece, quirky, understated, and full of quiet warmth. Stuart Bowden is a multi-talented performer with a self-effacing manner; the show is framed by a low-key ‘oh I’m here better get on with it’ sort of introduction. There’s lots of good music and I loved the way it was assembled, the result having something of the restless stability of minimalism. The music supports a main story to be told, in which ordinary people, objects and events build into a bizarre, poetic, tragi-comedy of mundane existence. There’s another, longer-limbed, story too and if there’s a punchline it’s a sort of reversal of ‘ars longa vita brevis’, at any rate if you’re a prokaryote.

Assembly Roxy, until 27 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Alan Cranston]