this is frantic

Imagine, if you will, a run-down working men’s boozer, the seedy backstreets of Bradford, a gobby, top-knotted Desdemona, and a pool-cue-wielding Iago, head-to-toe in Adidas. It’s a distinctly This Is England aesthetic, and one that surprisingly works in this ultra-modern (read: ultra-audacious), take on Shakespeare’s most brutal and absorbing tragedy. Of course, Frantic Assembly – known as much for their deadly dance moves as they are for their sharp-tongued delivery – have been here before: Scott Graham’s exhilarating and superbly choreographed Othello, previously a co-production with Theatre Royal Plymouth, first exploded onto the stage in 2008 and it seems, holds just as much potency today.

On entering the retro cinema-seated auditorium of The Lyric, the audience is met with a banging club soundtrack so ear-splittingly loud you wonder if the poor OAPs in the front row might need a swift interval lie-down, not least a stiff drink. Except there isn’t room for any half-time respite – this unapologetically stripped-down Othello has a running time of just 100 minutes. Frantic’s feisty acrobats-with-iambic-pentameter take us on a non-stop, highly-charged journey of paranoia, jealousy, sex and murder – unquestionably timeless, and placeless, themes whether a character is unsheathing his dagger in a Cypriot castle or indeed, threatening to glass his companion, thrust against the fruit machine of a West Yorkshire pub.

Mark Ebulue, recently of the RSC and interestingly, a former kickboxer, makes for an imposing and brooding Moor, while Kirsty Oswald’s Desdemona is a loud-mouthed – but wholly likeable – ladette. The brilliantly snake-like Iago, played by the skinhead (for this part, at least) Steven Miller, steals the show with his heinous acts of hate – made all the more terrifying in the context of 21^st century gang violence. Perhaps not one for purists but still, The Bard by way of Bradford? We’re in for the thrill.

Until 7 February, King Street, W6 (020 8741 6850)