A RETURN TO THE TREES

It sounds like the opening of a bizarre – and not particularly funny – gag. What do you get when you put a 12x8m steel structure, five performers, a visual artist, a composer in a room for just over a month? The punchline is A Return to the Trees, a dynamic performance piece exploring the social consequences of global warming and overpopulation.

Developed by physical theatre company Strings Attached, whose past productions have most recently included the complex sonic environment Sound in Motion in collaboration with musical group Assemblage Point at Underbelly Festival 2008, and The Ivory Tower at Peats Ridge Festival 2009, A Return to the Trees is their first major work to receive government funding and the benefit of intensive development. With a frighteningly precarious scaffold in the mix and lots of leaping promised, you are guaranteed to be planted squarely on the edge of your seat for the duration. (AB)

Mar 17-19, CarriageWorks, 245 Wilson St, Eveleigh, $20-30, 8571 9111, ticketmaster.com.au