Cover Image: Performers Nathan Turture and Luther Wilson lace up their boots before stepping onto the mat in The Scramble. Photo: Emma Fishwick.

The Scramble – Shaun Johnston (Fag Stag) 
The Blue Room Theatre, Tuesday 28^th October 

Two wrestlers—dance trained performers Nathan Turture and Luther Wilson—sit side by side lacing up their boots with quiet focus. They overlook a wrestling mat that will serve as both training ring and stage. As the audience settles around three sides of the mat, an eager curiosity fills the air. 

Turture and Wilson begin with warm-up drills consisting of stretches, tumbles and sprints, which soon evolve into measured collisions and tackles. While rock tunes bellow from a boom box, the duo communicate through body taps and gaze; establishing an intimate language that guides the work. 

They break for water, slide in their mouthguards, and roll up their singlets—game on. 

The performers commit with full-body intensity but beneath the tight clinches, explosive tackles, and breathless scrambles lies a tireless sense of mateship. Each grapple is a gesture of trust. 

Directed by Shaun Johnston (Fag Stag), The Scramble uses wrestling as a vessel to interrogate masculinity, intimacy, and vulnerability. In witnessing the two men collide, the audience is invited to wrestle with their ideas around the societal constraints that often choke male emotional expression. As the men collapse on top of one another, the intimacy of their tangled limbs and heavy breathing forces us to reconsider what male closeness looks like. 

Choreographic and improvisation tools organise the wrestling into an expressive language. Luther and Nathan tussle on the ground in an accumulating sequence of tumbles and slides that highlight a precision and care within the sport. This is later followed by wrestling positions that are arranged into a series of tableaus. Within these stilled moments—arms locked, chests pressed, and heads nestled—Adelaide Harney’s lighting design and Ryan Burge’s soundscape give spotlight to the beauty of male closeness and camaraderie. 

The Scramble is both a technical and emotional triumph. The performers’ dedication to a movement language that fuses wrestling with theatre and contemporary dance is sublime. They slam into each other with ferocity, yet flow seamlessly into moments of expansiveness and fluidity. This fusion never loses its grounding and unlocks new emotional depths within the physicality of wrestling. 

Turture and Wilson tackle the space like brothers-in-arms. This partnership is sometimes laced with contagious wit and competitive playfulness. Their connection feels guided by an invisible thread that pulls the audience towards hope that the taboo surrounding male closeness could one day be a thing of the past.