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Photo: Dmitri Djuric

Thick and Tight take drag and lip-synch to new and somewhat extra-ordinary heights in Short and Sweet, an "amuse-bouche platter", as they say, of short pieces - all directed and choreographed by Daniel Hay-Gordon and Eleanor Perry. The majority of which find the various cast members mouthing the words of iconic historic characters.

First however, in an evening which sees manipulate in its visual theatre mode, there is Two Moths in Real Time, a somewhat opaque piece inspired by Japanese Noh theatre and commissioned by the Noh Reimagined Festival. Here is aimless flapping about, sex and death - much like real life then - much to admire but little to understand.

Palate cleared - if not cleansed - the remaining five pieces provide the meat of an evening that is much more substantial than its creators would have you believe.

In Vicious, Connor Scott mouths the words of sometime Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, crashing onto the stage as if through a window and performing with that twitching, lithe-hipped sensuality of youth. The words are the dismissive, self-conscious trashing of grown-up values for which the Pistols won tea-time infamy and Vicious' version of My Way - at once inept and gloriously appropriate.

And it is My Way which resonates through the whole evening. Here are the words of people who went their own way. Azara Meghie offers up a fiery take on Grace Jones's ground-breaking androgyny from a 21st century perspective in Finding Grace.

The only performer to bring herself into her piece, Meghie's performance poetry explores the influence which Jones had on her life, the non-conforming woman with whom she shares heritage and race, both striving to be their true and authentic selves; Jones leading in public where others followed in their private lives.

In the filmed piece, Ode to Edith, Dame Edith Sitwell talks with unflappable upper-class English clarity of her otherness on what sounds like BBC Radio Home Service interview, her words mouthed on screen by the differently abled performers from the Corali Dance Company and the Camberwell Incredibles.

Back live, Oxana Panchenko lip-synchs, gyrates and thrusts to Boney M's Rasputin. Supremely vulgar and hilarious, Panchenko only latterly reveals her Drag King credentials when she unveils a member large enough to make a Donkey quake.

The narrative arc of the evening is brought to a stunning and satisfying conclusion in the final piece, Cage & Paige: We Could Go On And On. A mash-up of vocal samples from avant-garde composer John Cage and queen of musical theatre, Elaine Paige performed by Hay-Gordon and Perry. The pair slip in and out of the two characters, swapping them between each other, trading glances as the words ponder, with the lightest of touches, the joys of music and laughter, agreeing with Kant, that these are the two things that need no meaning to make them valid.

Thom Dibdin