Nicholas Hope’s Five Properties of Chainmale is
described as a “confronting, uncomfortable and comical” examination of “modern
man [as he] grapples with his crumbling reflection.” Despite the clumsy title,
you could be forgiven for expecting a provocative and thought-provoking piece
of theatre. What we get instead is clumsy, rather blunt, and dramaturgically
confused, and never quite works out what it is trying to say.