Dance review: JosephDance Base (VENUE 22)

RATING: * * * *

Italian performer Alessandro Sciarroni spends just 30 minutes with us on stage, along with a laptop connected to the internet and a large screen. Yet this brief meeting is still enough to wipe away any melancholic debris you may have brought with you into the theatre.

This is in part because of Sciarroni’s technical cleverness, which makes us marvel and laugh. But it’s also because he reaches out to us, making a connection with the audience that leaves us feeling we know him better than when we walked in the door.

Browsing the music he has downloaded onto his laptop (with all the options there to see on the big screen, allowing us to make an instant assessment of his musical taste) Sciarroni selects a track, then steps back from the computer.

Immediately, it is us we see on screen – an audience staring back at itself. Slowly, Sciarroni comes into view via the laptop webcam, giving us the option to watch the man himself moving in front of us, or his image projected onto the screen.

As the distorted nature of his image becomes more and more elaborate (and funny), our focus stays primarily on the screen. Sometimes he has two heads, a comically stretched body, or simply a gentle hand stretching in and out of view.

It seems so straightforward, yet Sciarroni must have spent a huge amount of time getting this just right. He also knows when to stop before it gets dull. At which point he pulls on a hilarious costume (you’ll have to find out for yourself what it is) and logs on to Chatroulette.com

For those unfamiliar with the concept, this website connects you with people around the world via a webcam. If they like the look of you, they stay and chat; if not, they go. The result will be different in every show, with the odd risqué “chatter” not impossible, but Sciarroni’s basic concept will remain as brilliantly simple as ever.

Kelly Apter

Until 12 August. Today 2:30pm.