As the pandemic drags on toward the end of a second year, all things, it seems, come back to COVID. When Dancenorth’s RED was conceived a year prior to the pandemic, the urgent concern driving creators Amber Haines and Kyle Page was shrinking biodiversity, symbolised by the prospect of humans’ red hair gene potentially dying (pardon the pun) out.

Georgia Rudd and James O’Hara in RED, Dancenorth. Photo © Gregory Lorenzutti

Now, its depiction of a flame-haired couple, whom we observe like a scientific study under glass as they gradually suffocate, takes on an even more potent resonance, with the encompassing set-piece of a clear bubble mirroring the tortured existence of many forced to live in isolation – either literally or figuratively – under the restrictive rules driven by COVID.

What starts as a languorous exploration evolves into expansive displays of strength and speed, before – as the bubble slowly deflates and the walls begin closing in – these movements take on an increasingly urgent and desperate quality in an effort to break out of the stifling confines in order to survive.

For the viewer, the 45-minute journey plays out as...