Thick and Tight: Natural Behaviour – The Lowry

Thick and Tight were established in 2012 by Rambert trained friends Daniel Hay-Gordon and El Perry.  Since then their combination of LGBTQ+ friendly dance, mime and cabaret performances have been wowing audiences across the UK and into Europe. Now out with their latest show Natural Behaviour, they have put together a collection of performed portraits of both human and non-human life forms.

They open with a short five minute piece entitled The One Horseman of the Apocalypse,  Here Daniel and El share the stage as a bright orange pantomime horse with a blond combover and a red tie.  Light-hearted, surreal and fun, it will be impossible to listen to the seventies track Disco Inferno in the future without picturing this horse.

Annie Edward’s segment Ode to the Last Nightingale is a beautiful yet slightly uncomfortable depiction highlighting the decline of the nightingale plus some other bird species in the United Kingdom.  At times gentle and others discordant it evokes thought and consideration.  Two shorts Creeping Bent and Lesbian Seagulls are then followed by Two Moths In Real Time which is inspired by research into Japanese Noh  and Kyogen theatre.  The first act concludes with Dust, where Jahmarley Bachelor uses the words and imagery of Quentin Crisp to create a vignette about how Crisp lived and how he never cleaned his flat.  The final image sitting there in a purple fedora as dust rains down is powerful.

Act two opens with Brahm’s Second Piano Concerto in Recollection of Others.  An intensely personal look by Daniel Hay-Gordon into his past, love of movement and how they have combined with him working with others and  the remembered moments of a physical connection.  This is the most stunning part of the entire show, emotional, vulnerable but strength showing through.  

The rest of the act is Azara Meghie with Baldwin’s Room , an expressive use of the words of writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin; Flies on the Spaceship Wall, a hysterical viewpoint of two flies listening to Katy Perry’s verbiage after her spaceflight and The Leopard, where Luigi Nardone interprets Maurice Ravel’s La Valse in a combination of feline and military form.  It is a spectacular way to end the show.

With the majority of the choreography done by the founders of the company the show flows along at a slick pace.  Between each section house lights come up and there is a projected and audio introduction into each section, giving some background into the conception.  Costumes by Tim Spooner, Tink Flaherty and Pam Gait are mostly simple, the latter’s for The Leopard being the exception.

Thick and Tight are excellent at what they do, and here with Natural Behaviours they once more provoke and entertain in one smooth performance.  For an evening of dance which is unusual and compelling, this is well worth a visit.

Reviewer: Helen Jones

Reviewed: 10th June 2025

North West End UK Rating: