What should you expect from an acrobatics show which claims to ‘explore the role of male companionship and its limits’? All that and a lot more, it turns out. As soon as the show started, I knew we were also in for a fun night. I was certainly expecting to be astonished at what the human body can do – which I was – but I was also amused and even made to think.

Barely Methodical Troupe consists of three young male performers: Beren D’Amico, Louis Gift, and Charlie Wheeller, each with particular strengths.

Though the show contains minimal dialogue, a lot was communicated through an equal mix of dance, gymnastics, and slapstick comedy. There is a profound human drama running throughout, liberally seasoned with unspoken banter, following the evolution of the trio’s friendship right from their first meeting. For the dramatic drive, the performance relies on many conceptual opposites (we’ll get back to that), but ‘mind and body’ were not among them – these were beautifully united throughout.

Whereas other, bigger circus shows rely very much on props to make their impact, this show impressed with its simplicity, relying only on choreography to create a spectacle. Each of the three performers knew to the step where the others would be – they moved as if all of one mind. The rapidity and fluidity of their movements meant they were often well into the next one before you realised how difficult the previous flip, roll or hold must have been.

The only additional support was the evocative soundtrack, adding atmosphere and intrigue to the progression of the ‘bromance’. In terms of the acrobatics, two things stood out: the mesmerising Cyr wheel – the giant hoop – perhaps a visual pun on Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, the classic idealisation of the male body; and the exhilarating leaning, standing, and jumping off of the other performers’ bodies. You could tell the audience was enjoying it from the gasps, cat calls, and spontaneous applause.

In terms of the thought put into it all, others have described how Bromance bypasses contemporary sexual stereotypes – and yet pokes fun at them. It can indeed be described as a meditation on maleness and male-male relations, on opposites in intrinsic tension: intimate friendship and personal space, self-protection and self-giving, trust and envy, group and individual.

I’d highly recommend keeping an eye out for the next time this promising trio visits the Oxford Playhouse – whether you’re already familiar with modern circus or not. Only one thing about the show bothered me: we never learnt what the last two kinds of handshakes are …