John
National Theatre, London SE1
4 stars

HANNES LANGOLF’S lead performance in John, DV8’s new physical theatre production, is a remarkable accomplishment.

Combining spoken word and movement, it’s a verbatim piece based on interviews by DV8’s artistic director Lloyd Newson which tells the life story of the eponymous John, whose life has been ripped apart by abuse since childhood.

Typical of the hardcore physical theatre of Newson and DV8 which blasts apart the dividing line between dance and theatre, John is the most succinct and accomplished of the company’s recent large-scale, issue-based productions.

With its focus on disaffection, Langolf’s physical power and subtle body language conveys a ne’er-do-well and manipulative persona, high on drugs, whose only sense of being “real” is in the pursuit of crime, cruising saunas and bareback sex.

In response to the spoken-word stimuli, we see John helplessly pissed and swaying against gravity, banged up in prison, enjoying the gym and reading to the tick-tock sound of time passing by.

These sequences are accompanied by hypnotic dance segments from Andi Xhuma, Ian Garside and the rest of the company, framed in an extraordinary and constantly changing revolving stage.

Never still, the production is often funny and confrontational — some may find it downright “rude” — but at all times it prompts serious thought on the struggle for affection, abandonment and the cost of breaking free.

This hunt for love and self-realisation is never patronising or exploitative. Under Newson’s direction‚ John’s situation is explored with dignity and in the process even ennobled.

Runs until January 13, box office: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk