Showing @ Festival Theatre, Edinburgh until Wed 5 Oct

It would be fair to call Wayne McGregor an ideas man. Since founding his Random Dance company in the 1990s he’s taken complex concepts and managed to successfully filter them through his disjointed, powerful, often confrontational but always absorbing choreography. It’s no surprise therefore to find him tackling in FAR that crucible of ideas – The Enlightenment.

The title is an acronym of Flesh in the Age of Reason, the name of Roy Porter’s book on the world of body and soul in the 18th century. And throughout the show, driven by the sometimes harsh, sometimes haunting score by Ben Frost, the dancers vividly play out the fascinations of the Age of Reason.

Filled with imposing physicality from spasmodic jerks reminiscent of a Galvani experiment or the nightmares of Mary Shelly to chaotic violent action, McGregor recalls the revolutions of the age and regimented motion prefiguring the domination of machines in the industrial revolution. FAR, as you would expect, continues McGregor’s journey of mapping the mind of man in movement and it is for the most part a gripping piece of work.

As always with McGregor’s dancers they give everything to the piece, committing themselves to the energetic and often painful poses he requires of them to create tableaux and scenes which at best burn brightly on the imagination. Frost’s music complements the movement perfectly and lighting designer Lucy Carter’s wall of nail-like lights provides an otherworldly quality to proceedings.

Despite the dancers’ hard work and their clear belief in McGregor’s vision, FAR doesn’t quite reach the heights of some of his other work. The main problem being that unlike the Enlightenment itself, which eventually gave birth to the Age of Machines, FAR runs out of steam and you’re left with moments of repetition and dull abstraction which could have come from the mind of some neophyte choreographer desperate to impress.

The show is only one hour long and it feels as if McGregor has fallen into one of the oldest traps of creating a brilliant forty-five minute show, bur fearful of short-changing his audience has tacked on unnecessary embellishments.

The forty-five minutes that do work are intensely gripping. The choreography and subject matter blend perfectly and McGregor’s willingness to experiment, not least by testing the limits of his dancers’ bodies has, for the most part, created an unforgettable and enlightening production.