Runners by Cirk La Putyka – Zoo Southside, Edinburgh

Cirk La Putyka are a Czech circus company, and a thrilling sight in full flow. Runners is based around surely the biggest piece of kit at the Fringe – a giant running machine, which fills the stage and can take four people side by side. It can also, as we discover, go very fast indeed. The four performers are physically very impressive, and they make full use of the constant flow of the machine, slipping on and off the giant conveyor belt and creating mesmerising rhythms. The result is a piece of dance theatre with extra props and daring. Giant spheres spin in perpetual motion, performers leap on and off and constantly defy gravity and speed at together. Particularly memorable sequence include people momentarily clasping one another as they pass on the belt, before it carries them away again – its motion becoming time itself. Directed by Rostislav Novák Jr. and Vít Neznal, with live music on keyboards and cello from Jan Čtvrtník and Veronika Linhartová, the piece is advertised as being about the incessant speed of modern life. In fact, it is a lot more subtle than that – tracking and contemplating stillness as well as movement. Runners has created a new genre of unclassifiable, exceptionally enjoyable physical theatre.