Lullaby - Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company

If you like your dance uncomplicated, pretty and entertaining, then this company is not for you. At the cutting edge of dance theatre, this is a piece, with just five dancers, which needs concentration and a willingness to examine and explore.

Choreographed by Israeli-born Vardimon, who also performs, there is a harshness and aggression to the piece that looks at hospital life and the medical profession. A compassionate and caring picture is not painted as the piece challenges the audience to consider everything from childbirth to cancer, disability, abuse and ultimately death.

Members of the hospital staff are not given an easy ride.

There's the consultant who is too big for his own boots, for example, and there's often a sense of the lunatics running the asylum.

The set, a sanitised hospital ward, is as bleak as many of the treatments offered while props, including the odd Zimmer frame, are put through their paces.

All the dancers are equally impressive, showing strength, agility and sheer physicality as the choreography demands their bodies develop minds of their own.

Violent collapses, brutish fights and unwilling acceptance indicate Vardimon's perception of the medical world – and we are left to wonder just how bruised the performers will be the next day!

t Lullaby was performed at NorwichPlayhouse.