A.I.M [An Invisible Mission] – Camden Fringe / Etcetera Theatre, London

Two performers, a bare stage, and a tabletop of household objects combine to deliver a truly inventive work of physical theatre in A.I.M [An Invisible Mission].

A.I.M [An Invisible Mission]

The best kind of fringe theatre tends to do one thing very well, and A.I.M [An Invisible Mission] knows exactly what it’s doing. ICA Theatre Company offers a deceptively simple conceit – a two-hander featuring a silent secret agent and a live Foley artist – and executes it with a kind of lo-fi virtuosity. One performer (Bai Zhijin) mimes his way through the various phases of increasingly high-stakes missions, while the other (Jess Perry) conjures the entire soundscape in real time, using a tabletop cluttered with bottles, a balloon, plastic bags, and occasional vocal trickery. It’s immediately charming, intermittently thrilling, and subtly formalist in its insistence on the physical over the digital.

The aesthetic is something close to festival minimalism. Black box stage, no set to speak of, a few lighting shifts. But the energy it generates is unmistakable. From the opening moments, there’s the excitement of watching a format being reanimated. This is theatre as a kind of analogue cinema, with punchlines timed to a tapped spoon, and scuba-diving achieved by… Well, I won’t spoil the fun, go see for yourself. Bai’s movement work is light and fleet, with just enough genre styling (a noir-ish shoulder roll here, a quick-cut twirl there) to sketch out a full storyboard. The form is so engaging it almost doesn’t matter what the story is. But ICA Theatre does make a stab at narrative, folding in a romantic thread to round out the spy plot. Whether that’s necessary is debatable, but the attempt is appreciated.

What Do We Actually Need to Tell a Story?

If there’s a weakness in the structure, it lies in the inevitable split in audience attention. Look too long at the table where the Foley is happening and you risk losing the narrative thread on stage, especially in the more densely choreographed scenes. There were a couple of moments where I realised I’d missed a transition entirely, but to their credit, the performers keep things clear and snappy enough that you quickly find your footing again. There’s enough generosity in the pacing (direction by Anja Longworth) to enjoy the joke of, say, a spilled coffee, without overplaying it.

While not quite a family show in the most general sense, A.I.M is certainly the kind of work that could unlock something in younger audiences. Specifically those old enough to clock the tropes it’s toying with (but old enough for a mimed exotic dance act). The whole piece invites a kind of curiosity about form. What can a spoon become, if you frame it just right? What do we actually need to tell a story? It’s clever without ever being self-important. More importantly, it’s fun. And sits comfortably in the lineage of physical theatre that would feel at home in another great festival, MimeLondon. Something intimate and exacting, rooted in craft but open enough to let the audience in.

ICA Theatre has made something fresh and clever out of familiar parts. And in the busy landscape of Camden Fringe, that’s no small feat. I’d happily see it again, and bring someone along to marvel at just how far you can go with a mime, a microphone, and a mission. Like Londongrad’s sharp farce and All These Pretty Things’ confessional musicality, this is Fringe doing what it does best: surprising us with form, and reminding us why we’re here.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 4/5

A.I.M. [An Invisible Mission] on until 3 August 2025. More info and tickets here.