Review: Hoipolloi's FLOATING

Welsh theatre company Hoipolloi are 'committed to creating new work for theatre that imaginatively engages our audience and makes them laugh' and aspire to the 'creation of strong stage worlds that are unbound by the confines of reality'. With Floating, which has a very limited season at Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall, ending tonight, they have more than met that brief.

A fantastic exploration of islander identity; a wild and whimsical ride at the far fringe of theatre; a lo-fi multi-media spectacular about family, community and belonging; Floating is all these things and more: hilarious, surreal, vivid and delightful.

The production's co-creator, Hugh Hughes, plays a character - also called Hugh Hughes - whose plans to leave his island home of Anglesey, off the north-west coast of Wales, are rudely interrupted when the entire island breaks loose from its moorings and begins to float away across the Atlantic at the mercy of wind and tide. This is the basic premise for the story, but long before it gets underway the show has already turned itself inside out.

Hughes - admirably assisted by the quietly charismatic Sioned Rowlands - engages with the audience by speaking directly to us, handing out props to be passed around and examined, stopping the show to explain to a couple of latecomers what they've already missed and encouraging them to apologise to the rest of us for holding things up. His wide-eyed enthusiasm and delight is infectious; the whole show burbles with his energy and vim.

There's a song about the village with the longest place name in Britain: the wonderfully named Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. There are flow charts and maps, philosophical meanderings and a breath-taking tableau. A vast bridge comes crashing down before our eyes. Audience members ask questions - in the middle of the show!

There's a marvellous sense of controlled chaos at play here - you never quite know what's rehearsed and what's not - and the laughter that is generated by this willfully eccentric production is matched only by the sense that, collectively, the audience is experiencing something wonderful. Floating is a remarkably sophisticated piece of theatre presented in the guise of shambolic disarray. It has the freewheeling energy of stand-up comedy and the pinpoint precision of the best circus acts, where failure is only a split second away. It's a deranged, delightful, madcap and marvellous experience, and I thoroughly recommend you see it if you can.

Hoipolloi's Floating at Arts House, North Melbourne Town Hall, season ends tonight. Book online or on (03) 9639 0096. If you miss the Melbourne season pop over and see Floating in Tasmania as part of Ten Days On The Island: Launceston, March 28-29; Hobart, April 2-5.