ScrewLoose

Hot from the Village Idiots, this mask comedy centring around flat-pack furniture is a roller-coaster of visual jokes – with not a single word spoken. The action is split between the home of a bored couple (she’s outgoing, he’s not) and a furniture company’s returns department (where the bored staff break the tedium in increasingly bizarre ways).

A chance bike accident in the street outside, plus a flat-pack delivery with a missing part bring the two worlds together, and mayhem ensues as the suburban husband embarks on his quest for that elusive part. And could that be love beckoning from behind a clipboard in a warehouse office?

Accompanied by a thumping music soundtrack, the cast make playing in masks look easy and they even find time to react (wordlessly) with the audience when given the chance. It is riveting to see how all the props and plot fall together until not a single part of the versatile set is without a use. There are echoes of Trestle’s own mask work (and it is no surprise to find that director Amanda Wilsher has worked with the company) but the selling point here is a strong plot laced with oodles of contemporary references and laughs.