Mesmer

Unlike often superfluous instances of technology in the theatre, Ian William Galloway’s video design adds greatly to the drama. The combination of film and movement is fascinating, supporting tension and emphasising a beauty that can be seen in the sport.

The show's creative team have designed a multimedia backdrop that is both vibrantly pulsing and poetically expressionistic. On a giant bank of TV monitors, a sweat-spattered black glove pounds in and out of focus, glittering like a star-spangled night sky.

It's the way this story is told – through a mix of video, replays, a revolving stage and some astonishingly choreographed training sequences – that makes it so compelling.

Beautiful Burnout is mesmerising: the fluid choreography, flickering recorded images and pumping music creating a hyperreality which enthrals.

[The creative team] have created an intense and shocking domain for Burgess and his proteges. A rear wall of screens shows fragments of faces, action, the cosmos; they suggest shards of dreams, half remembered aspirations, passing glances and, more chillingly, the out of focus vision of a boy who's just been savagely punched in the head.