All Genius, All Idiot, performed by Stockholm’s Svalbard Company, is a show of circus and physical theatre. Designed to portray the conflict between a person’s animal instincts and their human rationale, the show continually discusses a person’s strengths and vulnerabilities.

The show was thrilling, fascinating, terrifying, and very impressive. The tone shifted from scary, to playful, to weird, to strangely erotic. Although it could’ve been overwhelming, it enabled the audience to engage instinctively with what they saw – to feel in a primal way, then to stop and analyse.

The clash between instinct and intellect was accentuated by the struggle of a manipulator influencing other performers’ behaviour. When the manipulator falls victim to his own delusions, rationality is fleeting and chaos ensues. These transitions between reason and absurdity effectively explored notions of human behaviour.

In spite of personal understanding, as a general observation, this theme of instinct versus the human conscience wasn’t overtly clear and the narrative’s disconnectedness could have lead to audience confusion. However, this appeared to be the show’s means of captivating viewers rather than discouraging them – allowing the audience to create subjective meaning and draw personal, intimate conclusions for themselves.

The elements of physical theatre ranged from aerial rope, artistic circus, contemporary dance, Chinese pole, and hand acrobatics. The performers moved freely and cleverly around the space; their animalistic routines were raw and exuded a faint aggressive energy, while their humanised routines showed grace, control, and poise. The original music featured the groups’ vocals, which varied from background instrumental sound to rap, disco, and opera, but mostly, a bizarre electronic synth that provided an extra dimension and captured the scene and dance perfectly.

Weird and wonderful; the show excelled. Although its narrative was slightly ambiguous, the show captivated effortlessly.