M.I.S. – All Night Long

Danish physical theatre company Don Gnu look at masculinity in a fun, slightly bizarre mix of clowning and dance.

For half the show Jannik Elkær and Kristoffer Louis Andrup Pedersen play with a long wooden plank, enacting the timeless slapstick stunts that go with it. They balance and fall, they swing it round and avoid being hit in the face. They let it fall ominously towards the audience, before catching it at the last minute. It’s fun, and it’s familiar. Then Simon Beyer-Pedersen joins them and they move on to big bouncy balls, which they toss around like oversized juggling balls. 

Masculinity is scrutinised in a subtle way. It’s born out in the clothes the trio wear: brown and grey suits with moustaches that make them look like characters from a seventies buddy cop movie. The live synth soundtrack adds to the effect. They also wear socks with sandals, and there’s a strange interlude in which an advert for Don Gnu socks is projected onto a wall.

The show’s themes also emerge from the interaction between the performers as they play with the plank or the balls. There’s competition and rivalry, childishness too, impromptu games of ‘piggy in the middle’. They disrupt and antagonise each other.

Deadpan faces accompany all the daft chaos, and it’s brash, knockabout fun.