The title holds the clue to the meaning in this latest piece from Rotozaza, a young and exciting performance company who made a stir at Edinburgh last year with a cult show called Doublethink. Although this piece also involves performers following a set of instructions, I suspect that Five in the Morning may not have such wide appeal, although there is no doubting the talent or ambition of a company who can so intriguingly prod at our unconscious.
Five in the Morning appears to be set in a swimming pool where, amid the shiny white tiled surfaces, three swimmers await separate instructions from the PA system. So small, vulnerable and emotionally naked in their swimsuits, they acquiesce to a series of instructions that command them to do increasingly absurd things: "wear your towel in a different way"; "make your thoughts visible"; "build a human tower"; "die".
Yet it soon becomes clear that in this swimming pool of life, all is not what it appears. The dazzling pool sequences are intercut with dark, nightmarish images of stalking top-hatted silhouettes and masked figures. Perhaps what we are witnessing is people asleep, alternating between light and deep sleep. The swimming-pool setting gives a whole new meaning to the term "wet dream".
Rotozaza capture all the weirdness of the unconscious world and its Alice in Wonderland absurdity; in the willingness of the sleepers to obey instructions, this piece suggests something of those psychological experiments in which the subjects always follow orders, however terrible. But for all the skill and charm of the performers - Greg McLaren, Silvia Mercuriali and Melanie Wilson - the piece is too repetitive and insubstantial to sustain itself over 80 minutes, and is not leavened nearly enough by laughter. Long before it is over, it is not just your fingers that have turned into prunes, but also your brain.
· Until March 12. Box office: 020-8985 2424.
