Collaborator
- Robert Beale
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Nathan Johnston
Ockham’s Razor and Turtle Key Arts
Lowry, Salford
5-7 February, 2026: 55 minutes
Unusually for a company celebrating 20 years of performing and whose last visit to Manchester was with the ambitious multi-genre production Tess, Ockham’s Razor's latest work, Collaborator, offers something completely minimal.
Charlotte Mooney and Alex Harvey, who met at circus school, married, founded the company and are its co-artistic directors, are this time the only performers. There’s no scenery, and the substance of it is two aerial trapeze sequences in which they work together, support each other, combine their strengths and simply enjoy each other’s company.
It’s a self-portrait of a married couple who really get on well, using the medium they both know best. They say it’s the last time they’ll perform together as a duo, and “This new intimate duet is for anyone who has ever tried to make something with someone else: a decision, a work of art, a life.”
And so it is. In between the trapeze sequences there are ground-level ballets of a kind, exploring ideas like the fact that intersecting waves can reinforce or cancel each other out, that energy can pass from one body to another, that everyone has their “dark days” of frustration and anger, and “days when you just keep going”, all introduced verbally, so there’s no mystery about what they’re aiming to convey.
But at heart it’s two genuinely likeable people who don’t mind sharing their feelings with an audience. Self-indulgent? Maybe a tad – but you can’t help warming to them.
Why did they choose to do it? Ockham’s Razor as a philosophical concept is about choosing between competing explanations for something, and I wouldn’t presume to guess. The most they say is that it’s a matter of keeping it simple.
Tina Bicat is again credited for the costumes – mostly practice clothes, it seems – and Nathan Johnston for the choreography, such as it is. Holly Khan again creates the music, which is minimalist in its repetition, but effective.
At the close they tell us they’re showing “the days we will miss”, as they float together on the trapeze again. It’s their last time, and a touching moment.
More info and tickets here
