Receptionists by Kallo Collective – Summerhall, Edinburgh

Receptionists is a totally enjoyable hour of clowning, mime and laser focused fooling. Finnish performers Inga Björn and Kristiina Tammisalo make the perfect comedy duo as they inhabit their domain behind the reception desk of a 5 star hotel. They arrange their fruit bowl, turning an apple to hide the eaten half, keep each other awake with the service bell, and engage in ludicrous routines in which they entirely fail to answer the phone or to retrieve a stray neckerchief. Later, they do some chaotic chambermaiding. There are few words, and both are exceptional physical performers, but when they do speak it’s in an invented Euro-gabble involving words such as ‘flappety’, which is very funny. There are no serious themes – it’s shamelessly just fun – but it is a pleasure to see such precisely choreographed, expertly delivered comedy. Kallo are proper artists, and their work really is as good as it gets.