Dance, Physical Theatre & Circus review: Slut

Edinburgh Festival Fringe: Based on the Kathak storytelling and dance tradition of northern India, the Amina Khayyam Dance ­Company's new show Slut is a tale of prostitution and sexual exploitation, graphically told, in this wordless 55-minute dance narrative, by Khayyam herself and three other young female dancers.

Summerhall (Venue 26)

***

The story is a familiar one, of a young girl born into the ordinary happiness of ­childhood, but forced at an early age into a ­gathering nightmare of abuse and exploitation, caught between the tranquil beauty of her inherited Indian culture, and the garish semblance of ­western “glamour” – tight dresses, sky-high heels, blonde wigs – adopted by street prostitutes the world over.

It’s hard to feel that this show brings much new insight to a subject that has been very thoroughly explored – and sometimes almost fetishised – in ­British drama in recent years; and it sadly undermines a very beautiful tragic ending, ­taking us back to all that is lost in the brash urban ­culture of the 21st century, by adding a final crude satirical song about male attitudes, that would have been ­better placed earlier.

Yet some of the images of a generation of young ­women lost between the cultures of India and the West have a great power and sadness; and the show is delivered with memorable pain and passion, by a company who clearly care very deeply about the tale they tell.

Until 27 August. Today 11:45am.