As part of MimeLondon, Companie le Fils du Grand Réseau bring us this hilarious “silent” comedy, Fish Bowl. While part of MimeLondon and, as highlighted by quotation marks over the silent, it is not wholly a silent mime example, it is a whole lot of fun and chaos.

Fish Bowl is about three apartments in the same building, each containing a very different resident. Their tiny living quarters are sliced in half to allow us to see within, for their daily lives spread across all seasons and events. While on a large stage that is the Peacock Theatre, this one set has the sense of its small areas enhanced by the performer’s over-exaggerated movements and clever positioning of the staging interiors. For example, the tiny hallway, in reality, opens across the whole stage, but the performers contort themselves around the boxes and keeping to this small slither to really show how tiny this little world is.

Each character is starkly different, and there is something cartoon-like in the stereotyped universes they inhabit. We have a suited moped man whose flat is all white and clean, helped by his habit of hoovering his shoes as he enters; the hippy type who is full to the brim of items from boxes to furniture, leading to his sleeping area to consist of a hammock which evokes laughter when we first see it; and lastly, a pretty female whose flat is all pink and girly yet full of comfort. Despite these differences, we see the group warm to one another, the men lusting after the woman, friendships begin and fade and rekindle, and these character’s stories go in directions you never would have thought.

The humour is brilliantly done – a lot is reliant on physicality and involves clambering the staging or clever prop trickery, with some of the hilarity coming from age old comedy such as toilet humour or a peak at someone in their pants. Others are a bit darker but no less hilarious and shocks us in the transition.

When I highlighted silent in air quotes, this was to mean that the production isn’t wholly silent. However, this doesn’t diminish from the great physicality and some which is shocking and surprising. Music accompanies parts, there are sound effects and the only vocal sources from the characters are almost “Mr Bean”-like, with exclamatory noises or one words chorused. We understand everything that happens and these sound bites only add to the great action on stage.

Fish Bowl is a highly engaging feat of physical comedy, pulling from ordinary and relatable characters and lives but heightening the action to create a hilarious and fun production.