VOLCANO, the renowned and controversial physical theatre company, is to launch its new production in Cardiff.

Destination, by the Austrian playwright Thomas Bernhard, is presented in a new translation by Jan Willem Van Den Bosch.

The acclaimed director, Kathryn Hunter, teams up with the Swansea-based Volcano to present the poignant and comic play.

The strained and stultifying relationship between a domineering mother and a near-silent daughter is threatened when a young and brilliant avant-garde playwright is invited to join them at their annual summer seaside retreat.

The play focuses on Bernhard's eternal preoccupations - lost opportunities, power games, ugly babies, ungrateful daughters and bad art.

Bernhard, a novelist and poet as well as a playwright, is renowned on the continent as a connoisseur of spite. He is, however, virtually unknown in Britain and very few of his 18 full-length plays have been translated into English.

His nightmare visions mock, deform and re-make the familiar world using characters beyond the pale of ordinary life.

Volcano is a small but internationally-known company. It was founded by Paul Davies and Fern Smith who met each other in the weights room at a Swansea gym.

Their brand of physical theatre often involves themes of madness and sexuality, although the company has performed more conventional work, such as Alan Ayckbourn's Time of My Life.

Destination has its premiere at Chapter in Cardiff on September 27 and plays again on September 28 before going on tour.

8pm. £7/£5. Box Office: 029 20 304400.

* In the picture: A scene from Destination