Falling Heads

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https://thursdaygroup.net/falling-heads

Date Reviewed: 08/10/2025

The Thursday Group is a stunningly talented company - not merely actors, but true creators of theatre. Their commitment to exploring the boundaries of the medium, while keeping their work accessible and relatable, is evident throughout the performance. Each member’s devotion to their craft shines through, and learning that this was a group-devised production only heightened my admiration.

The group began developing this piece in September 2023, inspired by Akutagawa Ryunosuke’s short story “The Story Of A Head That Fell Off,” which director and performer Matthew Crosby introduced to the ensemble. Set during the Sino-Japanese war of the late nineteenth century, the story explores the absurdity of war and challenges audiences to consider conflict from the enemy’s perspective.

While this was evidently only a jumping-off point for the Thursday group, these theses permeate through Falling Heads. It too explores the absurdity and cruelty of war and having another people under one’s rule.

In this telling, there are two peoples with seemingly irreconcilable differences in worldview: the Sunflowers who prize the purity of human thought and abstract mathematics above all else and the Wild Boars, who are more connected to the earth and the corporal sphere.

The story studies how these two peoples can exist in the same space while one is militaristically stronger than the other. There are themes of political dissidence, poetry, religion, mythology, fanaticism and fatalism. Much of this is portrayed through a focus on the storyline of two siblings, Tomasz and Steph, separated through the schism and switched allegiances.

From the outset, the performance’s physicality was striking: militaristic training routines, intense battles, and pseudo-religious rituals filled the space. The choreography blended elements of interpretive dance with tai chi’s “pushing-hands” technique, emphasising mutual awareness and connection. The ensemble’s expertise in touch and responsive movement was evident throughout.

This physical intensity was complemented by the group’s innovative approach to lighting. Their choice to be their own lighting crew through the performance was a daring decision which mostly paid off, allowing for dramatic and engaging visuals. Some of the lighting equipment, however, was overly finicky and required the cast to fiddle with settings and switches which too often tore this reviewer out of the experience of the performance to unwillingly focus on the idiosyncrasies of technology.

The musicality of the performance was also notable. There is a good deal of a cappella choral song in Falling Heads, with beautiful, haunting, harmonies and leitmotifs that carry through the piece. The actors are also very capable vocalists, and these moments can really shine.

However, the play’s narrative and text were less compelling than its production values and performances. References to Descartes, geometry, and Fibonacci numbers, both in nature and mathematics, often felt forced, bordering on caricature. These philosophical elements did not provide a satisfying explanation for the conflict and brutality between the groups. I understand this was all, in essence, to act as a parable for war and occupation as we might see it today, and that the triviality of the philosophical differences between the groups might well have been the point, but I found it to be an obstacle to my really joining the Thursday Group on the journey and buying in to the premise.

And, as an exploration of the absurdity and horror of war, I’m not sure that Falling Heads has conveyed anything really new to me, though the theme is, of course, timeless.

That said, Falling Heads is worth seeing for the Thursday Group’s remarkable talent and dedication. Their commitment to the craft is evident, and I am grateful to have experienced their work. I wish them every success as they take the play to Denmark for their upcoming collaboration in Odense.

Reviewed by Daniel Kinal