THE MACHINE OF HORIZONTAL DREAMS

Sadler’s Wells East

★★★

“a visually compelling and thematically ambitious work”

Descending from the auditorium stairs and stepping directly onto the stage of Sadler’s Wells East feels, aptly, like entering the machine of this piece’s title. Pepa Ubera’s The Machine of Horizontal Dreams, a 60-minute, interval-free meditation on technology, community and embodied experience, is one of the more experimental pieces in Sadler’s Wells East’s inaugural autumn season. The venue, the younger and more exploratory sibling to the Rosebery Avenue main stage, is intended as a space for learning as well as performance. Ubera’s piece fits that remit perfectly: grounded in intellectual concepts such as ecofeminist and post-humanist thought, striking in design, yet uneven in choreographic delivery.

Visually and sonically, The Machine of Horizontal Dreams is arresting. Collaborations with visual artist Joey Holder and video artist/VJ Bobby León yield a series of mesmerising projections. Images ripple across translucent gauze: animations reminiscent of Da Vinci’s sketches of flying machines brought to life, looping words like digital code, providing a somewhat oblique commentary on human and technological progress. These effects, coupled with Pierre Aviat’s cinematic electronic score and Joshie Harriette’s evocative lighting, build an atmosphere that hums with potential.

The narrated segments drive a sense of urgency in the piece. In one of the strongest sequences, performers describe their dreams aloud as others embody them. One dreamer recounts a floor that writhes beneath them, only to realise it is alive with snakes – brought vividly to life through the ensemble’s slithering bodies. Another section, titled Purging, sees a performer list everything they wish to expel from the world — “Sky News, fake news, genocidal politicians, my breasts, shame from my pelvis” — a torrent of personal and political frustration matched by escalating movement. Each attempt to break free is met with restraint from the others, a physical manifestation of societal pushback.

Yet, despite such flashes of potency, the piece struggles to sustain its momentum. Ubera’s movement language, often convulsive and improvisatory, feels lacklustre once the verbal scaffolding falls away. The work’s chapter structure (“Systems”, “Purging”, “Dreams”, “Reset”) promises a conceptual journey, but when the choreography is left to speak for itself, meaning dissipates. Too often the dancers’ convulsing bodies seem to convey little.

Surrounding the core quintet is an intergenerational, community ensemble of around twenty performers. Their presence provides warmth and grounding, especially in filmed interviews which capture what dance and belonging mean in later life. This texture embodies the inclusive ethos Sadler’s Wells East hopes to cultivate.

The final chapter transforms the stage into a makeshift dancefloor: Aviat’s score morphs into buoyant techno, the ensemble two-stepping in unison, beckoning the audience to join. It’s an exuberant, if somewhat literal, release — the “purge” made flesh through communal movement.

The Machine of Horizontal Dreams is a visually compelling and thematically ambitious work that glimmers with moments of genuine interest. But despite its impressive production values, it never quite coalesces into the lofty ambitions it aspires to.

THE MACHINE OF HORIZONTAL DREAMS

★★★

Sadler’s Wells East

THE MACHINE OF HORIZONTAL DREAMS

Sadler’s Wells East

★★★

“a visually compelling and thematically ambitious work”