STAN WON'T DANCE
by Keith Watson
Metro (London), 12th October 2004
SINNER preview, Laban Centre, London
This dancing two-man band, in the shape of Liam Steel and Robert Tannion, is the best thing to happen to British physical theatre since DV8.
And that's hardly a coincidence, as Steel and Tannion are former members of Lloyd Newson's ground-breaking company, starring in stunning works such as Enter Achilles. If their debut Stan show SINNER is anything to go by, Steel and Tannion are about to make as big a name for themselves.
SINNER is a moving and darkly humorous voyage into disturbing psychological waters that sets out Steel and Tannion's commitment to a marriage of dance and dialogue. The duo have set themselves the daunting task of choreographing the text in a naturalistic style that calls for split-second timing.
Taking their cue from the story of the Soho pub bombings, Steel and Tannion use writer Ben Payne's text to conjure up an unsettling human spin on the kind of mind capable of monstrous atrocities. Confounding expectations from the start, a nervous pub flirtation subtly shifts into a psychological thriller. You really shouldn't miss it.