We’re a sucker for a good alien conspiracy story, so when we heard that the mighty Voloz Collective was doing another physical theatre show set in Roswell, we got tickets as fast as our secretly owned flying saucer could carry us.
If you don’t know who The Voloz Collective are, they’re a physical theatre / acrobatic / clown troupe. Basically, they use minimal props and acrobatics to tell a story. Through movement they paint the scene, so when a character jumps off an aeroplane they act that out, including the falling and so on. Sound effects and clever movement sell the moment, so the result is an action-paced performance that’s full of physical gags. Which means that whole thing is both funny and impressive at the same time.

Their new show follows the story of Marnie Makowski, who turns up in Roswell looking to uncover the mystery of her missing sister, a person who had spent their entire life chasing the extraterrestrial. True to the name of the show, every time certain words are said, we get a ‘beep’ instead; the facts seem to be redacted, so we don’t know what’s coming.

The story itself is a proper X-Files-like alien conspiracy story. There’s a killer on the loose, sinister government agents and a world-altering mystery at the core of it all. They are also puns, silly physical moments and flat-out jokes; this show is as much a comedy as it is a conspiracy thriller told through the medium of movement.

Like their previous show, The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much, this is a shaggy dog story well told. It’s taken some of the most interesting moments of the ‘sci-fi conspiracy’ genre and mixed them up into one big soup of lovely, delicious tropes. Very satisfying. Genre-savvy, cleverly performed and filled with joy. Recommended.

Tickets here, tiour details here.