Odyssey

Nic Rawling and co have come nearly as far as the wily Odysseus since their first 15-minute commission at BAC, as one of many live curiosities in the crannies of Punchdrunk's 'Masque of the Red Death'.

It's impressive that they can now sustain their endearing, speechless live animation for 80 minutes – a Homeric achievement for a show that consists, essentially, of Rawlings waving his ink sketches, mounted on cornflake packets, in front of a camera/projector while the band plays on. But those essentials convey little of the charm and nothing of the delicacy in every hand-drawn detail.

This new, longer piece riffs on the myth of Odysseus's return, after years of war and shipwreck, to his faithful wife and son. It's an apt subject: thanks to tireless craft-work, every Paper Cinema show is an epic, imaginative voyage and a labour of love.

This is not a literal recreation of 'The Odyssey'; it's more like an alternative theatre ballad inspired by Odysseus, Penelope and their son Telemachus, who are imagined in ink as a stringily muscular old traveller, a fierce axe-wielding beauty and their moody James Dean-alike biker teen.

A feeling of loneliness and longing pervades every sketch, symbolised spookily in the show's presiding motif, a solitary owl, the round-eyed symbol of Athene. The pictures are worth a thousand words. But even niftily architectured cardboard palaces, talented instrumentalists and the occasional written signpost can't quite clarify and amplify the story in the way that a sung or spoken narrative might have done.

Many of the best shows presented in BAC's artist-led spaces feel like they were made in someone's bedroom. That's part of their integrity and appeal. But a safe dreamspace is the beginning of a creative voyage, not the end of it.

I'd love to see this dextrous, daring crew of nu-folk theatre makers working with a writer, within a larger production, or with a fully narrative musical score. 'Odyssey' is a lovely small craft, stretched to its impressive limits on Homer's wine-dark sea. Perhaps it's time for a new quest, with a larger crew and even broader horizons.