Ockham's Razor, Tess, Peacock Theatre

Thomas Hardy's novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles may be set in Victorian England, but it has lost none of its power. The story of an innocent young woman seduced and abandoned by a rich, dissolute man, who continues to suffer the social stigma of her fall, still speaks to us about the misuse of power, moral hypocrisy, and the treatment of women.

Now Ockham's Razor, the award-winning circus and physical theatre company, brings its bold, feminist adaptation of Hardy's novel, Tess, to the stage, as part of the inaugural MimeLondon project.

With the distinctive style of performance it's been developing since its creation 20 years ago, Ockahm's Razor combines text from the original novel with the physical language of circus, something in which its performers, five women and two men, are experts. They weave together acrobatics, aerial, dance and physical theatre to create a powerful narrative retelling a story of power, loss and endurance.

Against a background of projections, Tess's ever-changing set involves wooden planks, shifting walls, ropes and swathes of linen, with which the cast construct surroundings evocative of Hardy's rural Wessex with its backbreaking physical labour.

We became familiar with Ockham's Razor in past editions of MimeLondon's predecessor, the London International Mime Festival so, based on past performance, we feel confident to predict that Tess will be one of the highlights of this new, very welcome mime project.