Back To Back’s latest little drama is quite straightforward: two girls, dressed in yellow leotards making them look like chubby bumblebees, bullies a third girl. First the torment is only verbal, but after they have walked out of the city, down a dirt road and into a shadow forest, the sinister psychological sadism turns physical and surfaces in its truest form: the raw violence of nature rears its fugly head.

The performers were amazing, delivering their lines and movements with such naked gusto that they captured the stage completely. Unfortunately, after they disappeared into the shadow world, their facial gestures were hidden away, which took some of the pleasure out of watching them act.

The soothing soundscape from the three gentlemen of ‘The Necks’ (I wonder what one of their “revolutionary” albums sound like... is it possible to make a critically acclaimed record of 70 minutes of sparse cymbals, infrequent bass twangs and plinging piano keys?) initially instructed my eyelids to go “curtain down”. Albeit, this might also have been spurred on by a glass of Laphroaig (Quarter Cask, which by the way is an excellent single malt, with a smoky flavour that you can taste in your nose if you breathe out nasally after drinking), I have to admit that the pace sometimes seemed a little slow. At times my mind wandered, leaving parentheses all over my theatre experience (admittedly, I have the attention span of a butterfly and often forget to get off the bus when I am supposed to).

The middle part of the piece seemed stale and the investigation of the raw power of bullying became repetitive and narrow (how many times/ways can you tell somebody that they are fat?). In the end, the power relations were never really investigated, the tables never turned, and I was left with a slight twang of unfulfillment.

According to the programme, the piece is an investigation of power. Also according to the programme, we, the audience, were supposedly asking ourselves: “who is the real bully here, and who is the victim?” I found the answer to be quite simple: the bumblebees beating the shit out of the poor girl are the bullies. But because they are disabled, they apparently got Carte Blanche to be pricks.

Well, I would probably have to disagree.

'Food Court' by Back To Back Theatre, 23-25 June 2010 Barbican Theatre