It begins with the bang of a bomb and climaxes with its two protagonists running in opposing circles. This new show by Amit Lahav and Al Nedjari, the gifted co-directors of the young British company Gecko, distils the conflict in the Middle East into a sometimes brilliantly vaudevillian two-hander with tragic underpinnings.

The men have a blood right to apply their skills as physical theatre practitioners to examine and even lampoon this subject matter: Lahav's lineage is Israeli and Nedjari's Algerian, hence the generalised title of their hour-long production. Presented as part of the London International Mime Festival, after which it continues touring the UK, this is theatre that matters to its makers.

The opening, like much else in Gecko's performance, is dazzlingly unpredictable. We first see the men hurtling in slow motion on ropes down on to a large sandbox of a stage. A bright light follows the sound of an explosion. Dazed, the fallen men slowly rise and register their survival. This opening section is mainly wordless and grimly amusing, especially when various items - a lone shoe, a transistor radio, some chips and a plate - drop down on to the sand. And let's not forget the doll, a poignant, puppet-like figure that serves as a touchstone for innocence and loss.

The performance then switches between locations and mindsets with a deft DIY invention, all of it pinned on the parallels and divisions between the men and their territorial sense of heritage. Lahav and Nedjari are a wonderful team, slipping from implied brotherhood to bitter antagonism and back again. The escalating violence of their rendition of a Spike Jones novelty recording (You Always Hurt the One You Love) is a cartoon-like delight. Neat, blisteringly funny connections are made between lust and aggression, culminating in a fiercely gestural “dialogue” composed entirely of explosions and gunfire.

The show stumbles towards the end, partly because Lahav and Nedjari opt for sentimentality over provocation. And yet they know there's no simple solution for what they are depicting. This recognition, coupled with their vitality and ambition, makes their work well worth seeing.

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