Dance: Into the void

Company Wayne McGregor
Deepstaria
director-choreographer-designer Wayne McGregor
dancers Rebecca Bassett-Graham, Naia Bautista, Kevin Beyer, Salvatore De Simone, Chia-Yu Hsu, Hannah Joseph, Jasiah Marshall, Jayla O’Connell, Mariano Zamora Gonzaléz
lighting Theresa Baumgartner
sound Nicolas Becker and LEXX
set Benjamin Males • costumes Ilaria Martello 
Sadler's Wells, London • 27.Feb-2.Mar.25 ★★★★

Taking its name from a genus of jellyfish, Deepstaria is a meditation on humanity's fascination with endless voids like the deep sea and outer space. Wayne McGregor gives his seriously impressive dancers demanding choreography that creates the impression of floating in weightlessness. And the set is a high-tech visual wonder, with inky blacks, dazzling lights and an audio mix that seems to send music and sounds right into our bones. It's an extraordinary experience for the audience, even if it's so intensely serious that emotional resonance feels just out of reach.

The dancers perform the otherworldly moves with unusual fluidity, seemingly floating as they stretch and spin around the stage. While there are a few sections featuring the entire nine-person company, much of this programme features solos and duets, plus a couple of intensely powerful trios. Each performer gets their moment to shine brightly. Movement is big, full-bodied and expressive, and the interaction is laced with subtle touches as dancers come together, sometimes echoing, competing or challenging each other. The highlight is an extended duet between two men that beautifully plays with balance and connection.

All of this takes place on a bare stage that is flooded with always moving lights, creating what looks like currents in the dancers' movements. The set may be made using Vantablack Vision, the light-absorbing coating that is used in telescopes, but it is thoroughly illuminated with lights that refract through constantly swirling mist. This adds to the sense of weightlessness and provides a couple of stunning moments, from a piercing light that breathes straight into our eyes to a shimmering rainfall effect that looks like magic.

Designed to make the most of the dancers' athleticism and physical grace, the costumes shift through the show, from black briefs to paper-thin sweats to tunics that are made from a translucent material called Japanese organza, which seems to drift in slow motion. They are transformed using coloured lighting, which maintains the show's continual shifting nature, as the movement switches from light and sweeping to sharply pointed, between solo numbers and communal pieces.

All of this is simply gorgeous to look at, performed with precision by the gifted dancers, while the complex sound mix is what guides us through a sense of emotional tonality. Intriguingly, this layered audio is programmed through the artificial-intelligence technology Bronze, which adds the unpredictability of live performance and could possibly be something live performers take exception to. But its visceral impact is undeniable.

For details, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Ravi Deepres • 27.Feb.25

Critical Week: A star is born

As we approach Oscar weekend, there is always a flurry of activity in trying to predict the possible winners. And it's great that this year's race seems much more up in the air than usual. So I'm rooting for some surprises (and I'll post predictions as usual on Saturday). Meanwhile, there have been more new movies to watch, including the finely produced British biopic Mr Burton, which recounts the early days of Richard Burton (played by Harry Lawtey, above) and his English teacher mentor Philip Burton (Toby Jones). Another British true story is set off the Scottish coast: Last Breath is a taut thriller adaptation of the nailbiting 2019 documentary about deep-sea divers (Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole) caught in a terrifying situation. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Last Showgirl • Chang'An
The Summer With Carmen
My Dead Friend Zoe
Superboys of Maleagon
ALL REVIEWS >

Taking on the finale of Homer's Odyssey (and perhaps offering a preview for Christopher Nolan's forthcoming epic), The Return stars Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus, arriving home in Ithaca to find chaos presided over by his faithful wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche). It's rivetingly played and a bit stagey. One of Them Days is a very silly but strongly engaging comedy starring Keke Palmer and SZA as best pals on a momentous day in their Los Angeles neighbourhood. Bruno Dumont's The Empire is a wacky alien invasion thriller disguised as an edgy social satire, set in an offbeat French seaside village. And the Georgian drama April follows a doctor on her illicit rounds with audacious visual and thematic style and bizarrely indulgent flourishes.

This coming week I'll be watching Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17, John Lithgow in The Rule of Jenny Pen, Bruce LaBruce's new film The Visitor, the drama Throuple, the animated adventure Giants of La Mancha and the documentary Riefenstahl.

Critical Week: You're winding me up

After the Bafta Film Awards on Monday, the final stretch of this year's awards race is as unpredictable as ever. Apart from Zoe Saldaña and Kieran Culkin, most categories are still up in the air. A flurry of awards this weekend will further muddy the water before it all climaxes at Oscar on March 2nd. Meanwhile, movies are still arriving in cinemas, and this week's biggest was The Monkey, another enjoyably creepy film from Osgood Perkins, this time with Theo James as twin protagonists. It's funnier than it is scary. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
I'm Still Here
I Am Martin Parr
Picnic at Hanging Rock
ALL REVIEWS >

From the Netherlands, Invasion is a slickly made thriller set in sunny Caribbean locations as beefy marines take on an unexpected attack from a (fictional) rogue South American nation. It's fun but anticlimactic. The Brooklyn drama Barrio Boy is an involving depiction of Latino subculture with a story that explores homophobia in somewhat elusive ways. From China, the animated epic Chang'An is a spectacular mix of gorgeous imagery, visceral battles and moving poetry. And the entertaining, finely made documentary I Am Martin Parr explores the British photographer's inimitable career. I also attended the programme launch for the 39th BFI Flare film festival (coming 19-30 March), plus the monumental Vollmond at Sadler's Wells and the rhythmic Trash! at the Peacock.

This coming week I'll be watching Woody Harrelson in the underwater thriller Last Breath, Ralph Fiennes in The Return, Toby Jones in Mr Burton, Bruno Dumont's The Empire, Georgian drama April and the documentary Ernest Cole: Lost & Found.

Stage: Rhythms from rubbish

Trash!
direction Yllana • music Toompak
with Gorka González, Fran Mark, Bruno Alves, Harold Gazeau
artistic direction David Ottone, Jony Elías, Gorka González
choreography María Rayo
set and costumes Tatiana de Sarabia
sound Nacho Ramírez • lighting Lola Barroso
Peacock Theatre, London • 18.Feb-1.Mar.25 ★★★★

From Spain, theatre company Yllana and percussion artists Toompack combine forces for this explosion of rhythm and rubbish. As with Stomp or Tapdogs, this show is a series of numbers performed using unconventional methods, in this case seemingly random items in a recycling centre where four outrageously talented men create an explosion of music and comedy. It's a hugely entertaining show, largely because the buoyantly energetic performers are having so much fun that the atmosphere becomes electric.

We meet these guys when they're in giant black bin liners, tapping out beats in the plastic before emerging to continue drumming on barrels. Because it's so enjoyable, it's easy to underestimate the talent we are witnessing, as they play with complex synchronicity and syncopation to craft layered textures of sound with whatever it is they have to hand. This includes tyres, toolboxes, umbrellas, basketballs, gas canisters and a vast number of plastic bottles. Of course, all of this is impeccably planned out and choreographed, but there's still a wonderful sense of chaos about it, most notably in the performers' comical interaction.

Along the way, each one gets a chance to stamp his personality on the proceedings, with witty gags, hilariously rebellious moments and bursts of song. They also speak to each other and the audience in Minions-style gibberish, which makes all four of them almost ridiculously endearing. This draws us in even further than the toe-tapping range of musical numbers, most of which feature genuinely jaw-dropping moments in which these guys demonstrate their expertise. And each one has serious skills.

It's impossible to pick a favourite moment, as the impressive musicality and goofy jokes keep the adults in the audience gripped and the kids giggling. With his rumbling voice and lightning-fast hands, Gorka González is clearly the leader, while Bruno Alves steals the show with cheeky bursts of anarchy and soaring musical riffs. Harold Gazeau has more energy than he can contain. And Frank Mark's marimba-style piece using bottles and a shopping trolly is a stunner. Then after some amusing audience participation and several call-and-response sequences, a flurry of sparks creates a triumphant climax.

For details, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Illana and Toompack: Trash! • 19.Feb.25 

Dance: Looking for love

TANZTHEATER WUPPERTAL PINA BAUSCH + TERRAIN BORIS CHARMATZ
Vollmond
choreography Pina Bausch
dancers Edd Arnold, Dean Biosca, Emily Castelli, Maria Giovanna Delle Donne, Taylor Drury, Samuel Famechon, Ditta Miranda Jasjfi, Reginald Lefebvre, Alexander Lopez Guerra, Nicholas Losada, Julie Anne Stanzak, Christopher Tandy, Tsai-Wei Tien, Tsai-Chin Yu
set Peter Pabst • costumes Marion Cito
lighting Fernando Jacon • sound Andreas Eisenschneider
Sadler's Wells, London • 14-23.Feb.25 ★★★★★

Originally staged in 2006, Vollmond (full moon) is one of Pina Bausch's final works, and still feels almost unnervingly fresh as it taps into how it feels to try to connect romantically with another person. Performed at this level of skill and artistry, this is a masterpiece of modern dance. It's staged as a free-flowing series of micro-vignettes in which the dancers throw themselves around the stage, deliver hilarious zingers of dialog and create an escalating sense of slapstick chaos as a full moon and high tide drive them to distraction. It's staggeringly involving to watch live on stage, because the staging and movement are both tactile and visceral.

Monumental and elemental, the set features a giant boulder sitting in a huge puddle of ankle-deep water. Performers enter in various ways, sometimes swimming through the water, clambering over the rock or sliding across wet surfaces. There are chairs, wine glasses, open flames and bare torsos. And the dancers act out little scenes, spiralling on their own or interacting in ways that playfully riff on the push and pull of relationships. This includes things like hair-pulling, stone-throwing and insistent kissing, all done in witty ways that continually shift the balance of power, mainly between men and women.

It's clear that these figures are tormented by the elusive nature of finding a relationship in a world that seems to conspire against them. So their extended solos express powerful emotions in between the humorous punchlines and visual sight gags. And the lighting inventively makes the most of the water, including sudden rainstorms, massive water fights and droplets that are flung from hair, clothing and buckets, dazzlingly filling the air around the completely drenched performers. This escalates over the course of two and a half hours (including an interval) until both the audience and the dancers are gasping for breath.

All of this is movingly shaded between light and dark emotions, as these gifted performers throw their full physicality into each element of the narrative, creating a riotous atmosphere that feels almost like a circus-style A Midsummer Night's Dream. There isn't a dull moment, as the musical shifts through a wide range of genres, from pulsing electronic beats to soulful Latin rhythms. And the costumes cleverly evoke both everyday streetwear and more heightened glamour, which adds some attitude along the way. In the end, there's a sense that everyone is flailing around, looking for love against the odds. But what is the alternative when we need each other to feel truly human?

For details, SADLER'S WELLS >

photos by Martin Argyroglo • 14.Feb.25

Critical Week: Anger issues

It's a busy Valentine's Day weekend for new movies, as British audiences have the hers-and-his double whammy of Bridget Jones and Captain America to choose from. I caught up with Captain America: Brave New World this week, and enjoyed it more than expected. It's a bit more focussed than previous Avengers movies, grittier and less bombastic, so of course most critics are complaining that it's not big enough. It's all very blunt, but I enjoyed the more nuanced performances from Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford (who red-hulks out!).

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
To a Land Unknown • Bonus Track
Memoir of a Snail • Desire Lines
ALL REVIEWS >

I liked the slightly pushy comedy-drama My Dead Friend Zoe, which stars Sonequa Martin-Green as a veteran grappling with trauma. Solid acting all around, plus knowingly complex characters bring it to life. I also really enjoyed Bonus Track, a gentle British coming-of-age drama about two outcast teen boys who find each other. It has some terrific stars in side roles, including Josh O'Connor, who came up with the story. 

The Sloth Lane (aka A Sloth Story) is a lively Aussie animated adventure about a family of Latin American sloths. It's silly but sweet. From France, Holy Cow is a wonderfully loose, full-of-life comedy drama that follows a tearaway teen as he tries to become a cheesemaker. And from Greece, To a Land Unknown is an engaging and powerful drama about two Palestinian migrants trying to catch a break. I also caught the hilarious stage show Miss Brexit at Clapham's Omnibus.

The Bafta Film Awards take place this Sunday, the biggest precursor to the Oscars two weeks later. I have rather a lot going on around that event, but also a few films to watch, including the British vampire movie Drained, the Dutch action thriller Invasion, the Chinese animated epic Chang'An and the documentaries Ernest Cole: Lost & Found and I Am Martin Parr.

Stage: The winner takes it all

Miss Brexit
directors Alejandro Postigo & Amaia Mugica
composer Harvey Cartlidge & Tom Cagnoni
with George Berry, Shivone Dominguez Blascikova, Ricardo Ferreira, Maxence Marmy, Isabel Mulas, Alba Villaitodo
Omnibus Theatre, Clapham • 11-15.Feb.25 ★★★★

Developed through improvisation by a group of immigrants in London, this smart, riotous comedy carries a strong thematic kick in its knowing observations and sharp-edged humour. It's also strikingly well-staged, with terrific songs by Harvey Cartlidge and Tom Cagnoni, colourful choreography and amusingly scene-stealing performances from an up-for-it cast. As the performers explore the immigrant experience with broad humour and pointed insight, it's the deeper ideas that resonate. Which makes this a scrappy gem of a show.

The six performers bound into the empty theatre space, which is brightened up by coloured lights and a big screen with helpful projections, including national flags, backdrops, subtitles and song lyrics. Dressed in shiny swimsuits are contestants from Spain/Slovakia (Dominguez Blascikova), Portugal (Ferreira), Switzerland (Marmy), Italy (Mulas) and Catalonia (Villaitodo). And the perky MC (Berry) informs us that, thanks to Brexit, only one of them will win a visa to remain in the UK, and it's up to the audience to choose.

What follows is a series of battles, as these divas get a chance to dress in their national outfits and deliver their personal sob stories to win the audience's sympathies. They are eliminated one by one until only the winner remains. And there's a lot of fun to be had along the way, with a series of raucous musical numbers, audience interaction and full-on comedy schtick, all expertly performed by the superb cast. And the way the show continually deploys and subverts cliches and archetypes is fiendishly clever. The comments about British culture are both lacerating and hilarious.

Each of the performers shines in his or her own way. Berry holds the centre with a cheeky, sometimes gleefully evil grin, skilfully deploying his hunky physicality and lightning-quick wit. Around him, the contestants are all hugely engaging, each finding funny gags in the continually gyrating scenes. Standouts are Ferreira's cross-dressing Miss Portugal, whose puppy-dog earnestness combines with a wicked seductive streak, and the outrageously funny Villaitodo, who walks off with the show as the diminutive, almost terrifyingly feisty Miss Catalonia.

All of this sometimes feels like a group of young people making up a show as they go, playfully swapping costumes and props to add terrific details while deploying a brisk sense of improv-style timing. So the jokes frequently catch us (and them) by surprise, eliciting a continual stream of laughter and applause. And the way all of this is deepened with genuine emotion, which comes from the performers' own stories, allows the show to offer both witty observations about Britain and the importance of creating your own tribe, wherever you find yourself.

For more, MISS BREXIT > 

photos by Jake Bush & Hana Ptáčková • 12.Feb.25

Critical Week: Campfire stories

It's the week after the London Critics' Circle Film Awards, so much of my time has been spent wrapping up details and sifting through the photos (I published my annual album on Instagram - in four parts). There were only a few film screenings, and with the cold, wet weather I was happy to stay indoors. The big movie was Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, the goofy but enjoyable fourth chapter in the saga of the London singleton so endearingly played by Renee Zellweger, this time alongside romantic foils Chiwetel Ejiofor (above) and Leo Woodall. Plus fabulous scene-stealers like Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson. 

BEST OUT THIS WEEK:
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
September 5
ALL REVIEWS >

Ke Huy Quan is a terrific lead in action comedy Love Hurts, adeptly underplaying the drama while adding wit to the action sequences. The movie is silly, but watchable. Ryan Destiny is fiercely engaging in the boxing biopic The Fire Inside, which is sharper than expected thanks to director Rachel Morrison and writer Barry Jenkins, plus the terrific Brian Tyree Henry in a nuanced variation on the coach role. And Francois Ozon is back with the very French drama When Autumn Comes, which twists and turns through its gently offbeat story, layering personal drama with insinuating intrigue. I also attended the press night for the inventive political play Antigone [on strike] at the Park Theatre.

This coming week, the Avengers are back for Captain America: Brave New World, and I'll also be watching coming-of-age romcom Bonus Track, New York romance Barrio Boy, French drama Holy Cow, Palestinian refugee drama To a Land Unknown and the stage play Miss Brexit at the Omnibus in Clapham.

Stage: Who do you trust for the truth?

Antigone [on strike]
writer-director Alexander Raptotasios
with Phil Cheadle, Hiba Medina, Ali Hadji-Heshmati, Sorcha Brooks, Hanna Khogali
dramaturg Or Benezra-Segal
set Marco Turcich • lighting Ariane Nixon
costumes Marie-Cecile Inglesi   
Park90, Park Theatre, London • 30.Jan-22.Feb.25 ★★★★

Reimagined from real events, this intense drama is inventively staged to draw on the way a news story plays out through political grandstanding and attention-grabbing headlines. It's also an astute spin on Sophocles' classic tragedy about a woman seeking justice in a system tilted against her. And there's an extra kick in the way writer-director Alexander Raptotasios so cleverly weaves interactivity into the narrative, forcing the audience to make key decisions that provoke responses and reveal deeper ideas.

The set is a whitewashed replica of the House of Commons, as MP Creighton (Phil Cheadle) rails against the young Esmeh (Hanna Khogali in video calls), who has been stripped of her British citizenship after leaving the UK as a 14-year-old to marry an Isis fighter in the Middle East. Now her husband is dead, as is one of her two children, leaving her a refugee without a home. In London, her sister Antiya (Hiba Medina) is at her wit's end after a court case goes against Esmeh, so she goes on hunger strike outside the Home Office. Her boyfriend Eammon (Ali Hadji-Heshmati) supports her, but has a serious conflict of his own.

All of this plays out in a swirl of verbal and visual activity, with headlines and messages projected onto the various surfaces of the set, including pointed questions posed by a TV news show host (Sorcha Brooks) that the audience answers on a keypad, then the results are projected as well. The story moves briskly over 90 minutes, as the adept cast members create various other characters who fill in the story, adding points of view that are both annoyingly loud and beautifully nuanced.

Performances are excellent across the board, as the cast commits to some properly earth-shattering moments. Dialog overlaps and scenes shift very quickly. Cheadle never flinches at Creighton's hardline right-wing views, strident and harsh in his refusal to see the human side of this situation, even as it affects his own family. Both Medina and Hadji-Heshmati have far more sympathetic roles, creating both warmly involving and darkly wrenching moments as Antiya and Eammon navigate a perilous situation. These young people simply want to see justice prevail amid terrifyingly over-amped events.

Packed with terrific details and stagecraft that skilfully deploys sights and sounds, this ambitious play is dazzling, never getting lost in its topicality because it continually reminds us that this is a story about flawed people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. By involving the audience in the decision-making, the experience creates unusually personal angles that counter-balance the more academic discussions and lofty prose. So this becomes about much more than Islamophobia, child trafficking, media manipulation or military intervention. The salient questions become "Do you feel well informed enough about this situation?" and "Who do you trust for the truth?" And then even more chillingly, "Should the majority rule?"

For details, PARK THEATRE > 

photos by Nir Segal • 3.Feb.25