Gecko's first show, Taylor's Dummies, was one of those unexpected surprises that make being a critic such a pleasure. Here was a physical theatre company doing a debut that was assured, witty, thoughtful and quite astonishing in the way it used every inch of space to tell its story of misplaced and thwarted love.
Now, after national and international tours of Taylor's Dummies, Gecko graduate to BAC's main space and, alas, fall flat on their faces. Not literally, of course - they are far too accomplished as physical performers for that. But just as the second play is always difficult for the traditional playwright, it proves to be just as hard a nut to crack in the physical theatre world.
Imagine what Hieronymus Bosch might make of the modern rat race, and you have something of the flavour of this show. It depicts life as an obstacle course, with steeply raked planks to negotiate and hazardous bungee ropes attached to one's back.
But the idea that we are born, we struggle and we die is neither original nor particularly insightful. And while Taylor's Dummies succeeded in matching form and content, The Race's central idea is too nebulous and undeveloped for the show to find an inner life. There are odd flashes of invention, but the evening needs many more moments like the one when a cradled telephone suddenly becomes a baby.
The Race is ingenious, but the ingenuity is never focused or harnessed, and the piece fails to have an emotional impact because the central Everyman figure so lacks a real character. You never care about him. This looks like workshop exercises plonked down in front of a paying public.
· Until February 13. Box office: 020-7223 2223.
