Sunny Side review – teen spirit spirals in yearning dance drama

The Place, London
Arresting show from Northern Rascals charts the growing distance between two young men

This bedroom looks like it has been ripped out of a building. Its walls are edged with an exposed, skyline-like mesh. Here, 18-year-old Yorkshireman K is clinging on. His routine replays, every morning a Monday. The alarm is followed by bleary stretching, then he’s out the door, a growing mound of abandoned breakfasts in his wake.

If K feels his horizons are shrinking, the looser-limbed Danny’s seem to expand – he has left their valley to study in Manchester. K longs to be beside him again. Each visits the other’s home in this frequently arresting piece of dance-theatre from Northern Rascals (created and directed by Anna Holmes and Sam Ford) which captures disconnection in young adulthood and the gap that grows between old and new experiences. You sense K’s relief when his and Danny’s movements fall into step, feel his dejection when he gets a matey slap on the back.

Touring until 27 July