Can you miss someone you’ve never met? When you survey your surroundings, do you think about their past? Do you ever imagine that you’re a character in a novel — enacting a story that’s controlled by an omniscient narrator? 

These are three of the questions invited by theatre company non zero one’s intriguing, elliptical site-specific piece. One sees no concrete evidence of the creative talent behind it but it is intelligently crafted and totally engaging.

The audience are the performers, and at any one time there can only be six audience members. This makes for intimacy. It’s an intimacy that feels secluded and foreign, and its texture is the piece’s main subject.

On arrival I am assigned a coloured card which determines which route I take through the bowels of the Barbican. Donning headphones and an MP3 player, I’m presented with instructions, which I can choose to follow or undercut.

As it happens, I deviate from them just once. Yet in any performance each participant’s journey will be different. I find myself making a paper plane, catching another person in my arms, examining the grungy relics of a party, and discussing my favourite aromas in a pop-up chatroom.

The technology involved isn’t cutting-edge but it is used in a way that makes the experience fresh. The piece lasts not much more than 40 minutes, and for the first five I felt deeply suspicious of its integrity and seriousness. But I was sucked in. 

Not many people will see Would Like To Meet, for simple logistical reasons. It wouldn’t work with
bigger audiences. It’s impossible to describe it faithfully — partly for fear of giving something away — yet I found it eerily beguiling, and I suspect it will haunt my imagination for a long time.
Until May 16. Information: 0845 120 7550.