"Can you believe your eyes?"

Wall of Death | National Theatre of Scotland | SECC Glasgow, then touring | Until Friday 12th

This piece, billed as a "once in a lifetime event" is indeed something you are unlikely to see ever again. It's an amalgamation of performance and installation art coupled with good old fashioned carnival showmanship. Wall of death is NTS' latest departure from conventional theatre, in which Glaswegian artist Stephen Skrynka defies death by facing up to his boyhood dream of riding the Wall of Death - basically a huge vertical bowl, in which skilled traveling families ride motorcycles and go-karts around at speeds of up to 100mph, glued to the wall by G forces alone.

The piece begins with his story, and the audience are invited to fill in question cards for the family. The artist then presents us with his installation piece, a carnival sideshow featuring animations and optical illusions played on old turntables, the audience being invited to constantly play and interact with the models. Eventually, the revving of motorbikes becomes more intense, and we are led through to the outside of the "wall of death" enclosure, where we can walk around and inspect the mammoth structure which has been touring the world since 1994. Back projected videos onto outside walls begin to piece together the artist's journey to learn the wall, and introduce us to the patriarch of the family - Ken Fox. Eventually, the revving of engines drowns out all other sounds, and the large shutter of the "stage" in front of the bowl opens to reveal the family and compere, who answer the questions put to them by the audience. They seem remarkably normal - somehow I was expecting something less so. Jovial comments about the lack of school effort, girlfriends and boyfriends of the leader's sons (who have been riding the wall since age 10) as well as great anecdotes about the show make this experience all the more personal, and for me made what we were about to see all the more real.

We are led up to the gallery of the wall, around 60 people gather round, and the amazing spectacle begins - with all members of the family and recent addition Kerri Camero riding around the wall at high speed, performing tricks, ducking and diving round the bowl literally inches from the audience above. Some ride with no hands, on the sides and fronts of the bike, and the finale presents three members riding simultaneously. The show itself is worth the admission, indeed we are constantly asked by the compere "Can you believe your eyes?". The stunts look impossible, and the personal connection we now feel with the family makes it all the more death defying - these are real people, and this (as the show's slogan states) is a way of life.

We are constantly expecting the artist Stephen Skrynka to get on a bike and join in. The ease with which the family have performed these acts makes us believe that this is a skill which could easily have been obtained in the 5 months that he has been training, and towards the end the audience begins to cheer for the artist - who states, rather sheepishly, that he will not be riding. He does, however, have a go - under the supervision and with the permission of his trainer, Ken Fox. He nervously circles the angled boards, trying to make his way onto the vertical wall, and seems to do so - if briefly, and is awarded thunderous applause from the audience, who begin to realise just how difficult this must be.

Skrynka's work has a long running theme of trying to "impersonate" the jobs of others (he has previosly tried to work as a cabbie in Glasgow in order to have his passengers perform for him in the back seat) and this may have been his toughest challenge yet. As a spectator, we feel great respect for the man who unlike most artists has literally put his life on the line for his work. The pre-show videos present images of him falling and injuring himself, and he tells us before the show that this is truly the hardest thing he has ever had to do.

Thankfully, the stunts have been left largely untempered with. The pre show "art" is an interesting pre cursor as to what we see next but the show itself is just that. It has thankfully been left plain and simply as the great spectacle that it is. The only thing unclear is the "point" of the piece, if one exists. What is Skrynka trying to say? The piece could be interpreted as social commentary about the plight of the traveling family (Ken Fox's wall is one of only three currently in operaton). Perhaps it is a piece about the nature of performance and spectacle. Maybe Skrynka is simply presenting the awe inspiring sight of this incredible family defying death several times a week.

Whatever he is doing, he is succeeding - two days on I can't stop thinking about the spectacle of is all - the smell of the engine fumes, the incredible noise of these machines and the sight of 4 skilled riders doing what looks to be utterly impossible. Stephen Skrynka's involvement encourages this notion of impossibility - and that's what makes this work.

Wall of death is at the SECC until Friday, the Aberdeen AECC from the 15th-17th of February and then plays the Edinburgh Royal Highland Centre from the 20th - 28th