Act Without Words II presents two individuals emerging in turn from sacks when a poking device goads them into action. They never meet, but are mutually engaged insofar as one’s most important task is to move the other, cocooned inside sack, a little further away from the ‘goad’ in one cycle in a longer struggle that we do not witness. Company SJ and Barabbas’s self-consciously sociopolitical framing of this mime as a literal depiction of the homeless does make you think about people at the most raw level of existence, but its power still comes from its skillful presentation of bio-mechanical action by two brilliant physical actors.

Raymond Keane and Bryan Burroughs are made up by Liadain Kaminska and Stephen Quinn to resemble the real human sacks you’ve passed on the streets many times. This earnest rhetoric is meaningful and not ineffective, but the joy of the show is in its masterful studies in movement, posture, and gesture. Keane is spellbinding. He plays the more physically challenged figure, and invests every inch of motion both with strain and tiny triumphs. Burroughs plays the edgier character, haunted by external realities including a watch fixation that arguably hint at deeper context, but are also part of Beckett’s absurdist armoury. It is funny and poignant but largely abstract. The programme invites meaningful contemplation of the surrounding architecture, but the action is directly before you.

Star rating: ★★★★★