Review: Ockham's Razor: This Time

Alex Harvey and Charlotte Mooney, the key artists behind the estimable company Ockham's Razor, are no longer the new kids on the block of British circus. Their latest show grew out of the fact that both recently turned forty and are the parents of a young child. Lasting just over an unhurried hour, This Time is about taking stock of one's self at whatever stage of life you may be, and about how our lives could almost always be said to be in a state of transition.

Mooney, whose presence is forthright and sturdy, and the muscularly rock-solid Harvey share the stage with Lee Carter and Faith Fahy. I'd venture to say that the limber Carter is possibly about sixty years young, while the coltish and wiry Fahy could be about 12 or 13.

All three adults deliver monologues about significant episodes in their pasts and the impact these had on shaping who they are today. These stories are told with honesty, wit and clarity: Carter's tale, about becoming a mother at the age of 49, is especially touching. But it is the cast's mainly aerial movement—shared or solo and, note, on bespoke equipment, a company hallmark—that deepens their words. The foundation of their corporeal closeness is trust, and it's enough to induce quiet joy plus an occasional catching of breath. They cradle and balance each other, climb and clutch, tangle limbs and step on flesh and bone. The net result—minus any literal nets—is gratifyingly physical food for thought.