Director Aurelien Bory has created a very photogenic show about the relationship that exists between man and robot.

Eastern Daily Press: NNF16 - Sans Objet. Photo: Aglae Bory.NNF16 - Sans Objet. Photo: Aglae Bory. (Image: Aglae Bory)

As the lights go down we see a rather strange and eerily lit object. It is wrapped in black plastic and moves very slowly and gracefully. The sheeting is removed and there is the robot - tall, sleek and made of steel. A shallow, green light picks out its giant shadow on the wall behind.

Two dancers are now on stage with the huge device.

Womb-like, the stage becomes dark, back-lit behind the robot, which takes centre stage. Steel gleams. The performers climb into the fabric of the machine, being tipped first one way and then another. There is something surprisingly tender about all this. Throbbing, electrical music plays in the background.

Now the humans are morphing into the machine. One pops his head over a steel plate wielded by the robot. His legs appear beneath him, fathoms down. As if he has come apart in the middle and been resoldered to the metal.

A large scale experiment in the laboratory of dance and movement. Dramatic? Perhaps not, but beautiful? - certainly.

Eve Stebbing