FRONTIERS at Sadler’s Wells Theatre

★★★★

“an impressive showcase of talent, both established and on the up”

The National Ballet of Canada arrived at Sadler’s Wells this season for the first time in over a decade. Company Director Hope Muir leans into the national heritage with a programme of works by contemporary Canadian choreographers, playing to the crowd with choreographer du jour, and Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist, Crystal Pite topping off the bill.

The programme starts with its oldest work from 2013, Passion (header image – photo Bruce Zinger), by James Kudelka. Kudelka is a former Artistic Director of the company, although he created this work after his tenure, originally for Houston Ballet. It’s a wonderful place to start – directly exploring the evolution of the form from the romantic era of the 19th century through to the contemporary era of the 20th. Two duets intermittently draw attention. The first, a classical duet directly adhering to ballet’s 19th century heritage, full of arabesques, pirouettes and picture-perfect lifts that could be snapshots for a textbook. In contrast, we find a man and woman more passionately displaying their relationship – dressed in more simple, everyday costume more reminiscent of a Balanchine rehearsal studio image. The juxtaposition between romanticism and sensuality provides a rich seam for cultural criticism. But there is so much happening between the active corps, the romantic era principals and first soloist duets, and the contemporary duet that something’s got to give. Unfortunately, it’s often the poor corps, who are run ragged by Kudelka’s choreography, hardly leaving the stage or pausing from their jeté’s.

After the interval, are two pieces by female choreographers more alike to each other than to the first piece, though distinct in scale.

Islands (image above – photo Karolina Kuras), is a duet for two women by Emma Portner, a dancer-choreographer with a dauntingly impressive CV for being not-yet 30. Genevieve Penn-Nabity and Heather Ogden reappear fresh from leading the previous piece. Whilst not immediately clear from the off, the dancers are conjoined in a shared pair of trousers. This leads to some wonderful optical illusions, where it’s unclear who which limbs belong to. Disappointingly, the conceit does not continue throughout the whole piece. Whilst the movement of both dancers continues to be wedded to each other as the score moves from more electronic sounds to an almost choral pop piece by Lily Konigsberg, I cannot get past the pile of awkwardly abandoned trousers, symbolising an inspired idea only half-explored.

This notion is only solidified by experiencing Angels’ Atlas (image below – photo Karolina Kuras), a piece created for the company in 2020 by Crystal Pite. Pite is singular in her vision, uniquely exploring colossal concepts about the human condition, such as grief in Betroffenheit, the plight of refugees in Flight Pattern or, in this case, the infinite awesomeness of the cosmos in contrast with individual humanity. Angels Atlas fills the stage with the full company, a Pite signature technique, against a light shattered backdrop, designed by Jay Gower Taylor and Tom Visser, to give an ethereal quality, emphasised by the liturgical chorus. With a cast as large as this, potentially up to fifty dancers, much of the effect comes from the indistinguishability of individuals from the chorus of movement. That being said, Siphesihle November stands out as an utterly bewitching presence amongst the crowd. It’s subtle, but palpable, as if his every exhalation and extension lasts just a moment longer than his neighbours – feeling, rather than performing his role. This is the closest I have come to experiencing dance as hypnosis – the synchronised and canonical movements, combining with the lighting and sound inducing a trance-like state.

Frontiers: Choreographers of Canada achieves what it likely set out to do – return to London with an impressive showcase of talent, both established and on the up, on and behind the stage. Kudelka and Portner’s pieces are enjoyable thematic explorations, but really it’s all about Pite – who never misses.

FRONTIERS at Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Reviewed on 2nd October

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Bruce Zinger and Karolina Kuras

Previously reviewed at this venue:

TUTU | ★★★ | October 2024

CARMEN | ★★★★ | July 2024

THE OPERA LOCOS | ★★★★ | May 2024

ASSEMBLY HALL | ★★★★★ | March 2024

AUTOBIOGRAPHY (v95 and v96) | ★★★ | March 2024

NELKEN | ★★★★★ | February 2024

LOVETRAIN2020 | ★★★★ | November 2023

MALEVO | ★★★★ | October 2023

KYIV CITY BALLET – A TRIBUTE TO PEACE | ★★★½ | September 2023

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER AT 65 | ★★★★★ | September 2023

FRONTIERS

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★★★★★

“sensitively scripted and staged”

When novelist Tawni O’Dell’s daughter was raped, her first instinct was not to write about it. Only through a one-off session with a psychiatrist was the seed planted that perhaps, after a career of writing fiction, writing something based on her own experience might help to process the event. The result is When It Happens to You, a play that details a family’s experience dealing with trauma, not as a family drama, but more as an extended monologue. Each perspective is told first hand, with only rare moments played out in representative scenes for the audience, the transition between introspection and dramatisation indicated by subtle lighting cues against a simple representation of the New York City skyline (Sherry Coenen).

The play uses the rape – as the title suggests – as something that happened. Amanda Abbington plays Tara, representing Tawni O’Dell who played herself in the original Off-Broadway staging. Abbington talks about it as an event that happened in the past, matter of factly, in the past tense. This is exemplified early on with a repeated refrain to set the scene: “the night my daughter was raped…”. The drama of the piece unfolds in the aftermath, showing how, in the words of Tara, the event metastasizes to become the most significant event in her daughter Esme’s life, despite her protestations. As a result, the event permanently alters the mind and relationships of Esme, her mother and brother, Connor.

Despite the grim subject matter the piece doesn’t feel too heavy or overplayed. If anything, moments of cognitive dissonance between how Tara thinks and how she acts create humour, easing the audience in with the juxtaposition of a horrifying 3am phone call and the mundanity of looking for a missing cat. Later, in her one visit to a ‘shrink’ he incisively points out that she uses humour to hide her pain.

Performances are strong all round. Whilst the piece is primarily told to the audience from Tara’s perspective, Director Jez Bond keeps the cast on stage throughout, reacting in character to Tara, with each of her children having a moment to address the audience directly.

When people talk about Esme (Rosie Day), they express worry, frustration and pain. But when Day addresses the audience, she expresses hope found in the colour yellow. Miles Molan as ‘the little prince’ and scientific genius Connor doesn’t skirt around the issue in his monologue, with a frankly rational yet incisive observation that it’s not just the wound of the attack that plagues Esme, but the additional fear of becoming a social pariah when people find out what happened to her. Tok Stephen’s impact belies his rather limited stage time, playing all other male roles with finesse, adeptly switching between a hardened New York detective, a Tony-winning love interest of Tara, and a $300-per-hour psychiatrist.

Slight inconsistencies in plot and performance can be excused given the powerful nature of the piece with its intimate portrayal of a family in crisis. Whilst the narrative is strong for its specificity, it equally finds strength in being a statistically widespread experience. 1 in 4 women have experienced rape or sexual assault. A staggering statistic, confirmed by Rape Crisis England & Wales, that makes this sensitively scripted and staged piece one to watch.

FRONTIERS at Sadler’s Wells Theatre

★★★★

“an impressive showcase of talent, both established and on the up”

FRONTIERS at Sadler’s Wells Theatre

Reviewed on 2nd October

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Bruce Zinger and Karolina Kuras

Previously reviewed at this venue:

FRONTIERS

FRONTIERS

WHEN IT HAPPENS TO YOU at Park Theatre

★★★★★

“sensitively scripted and staged”

WHEN IT HAPPENS TO YOU at Park Theatre

Reviewed on 6th August 2024

by Amber Woodward

Photography by Mark Douet

Previously reviewed at this venue:

WHEN IT HAPPENS

WHEN IT HAPPENS