2 – 4 November

This double bill, devised and directed by Ben Duke, takes as the theme of the first piece, Cerberus, nothing less than the movement of humanity from birth to death. Inviting a mighty metaphor, Mr Duke, nothing loath and with something like the old proverb, Example is better than precept, in the back of his mind, gives us a series of progressions and processions to illustrate the universal journey.

It is not a conventionally pretty piece with beautiful, graceful, movements; using the rich diversity of his dancers, we find here mankind, sometimes willing and then again frantically resisting the inevitable march to oblivion. Frantic writhing with compelling angular shapes that have their own unexpected beauty, have the effect, not of a random lack of control, but its opposite, something detailed and exquisite in its depiction of our often desperate resistance to the inevitable.

The dance has a nod to the myth of Orpheus who we recall, visited the underworld and convinced Hades, who with his wife Persephone, was so moved by Orpheus’ mournful song about his dead wife that he permitted Eurydice to return. Orpheus, as we know, blew it by looking back, but managed himself to outwit Cerberus, the many headed dog who guarded the exit. For us there is no escape.

Dark humour nudges against a moving pathos that I found irresistible. With a pounding electro beat in one scene and a haunting vocal solo accompanied on guitar, the line between dance and other forms of theatre is in a state of flux.

The second piece, Goat, if not quite blurring the line, changes it to a series of dots. Here the metaphor is more explicit with one individual being used as the scapegoat for the ills of humanity. His fate, like the owner of Hans Christian Andersen’s, Red Shoes, is to dance himself to death. Much of the piece is set to the songs of Nina Simone (beautifully delivered by Sheree DuBois) and an ironic version of, My way. With a drunken singer on the stage-within-a-stage and an ironically inept TV presenter who is live-casting to an on-stage screen, this is Rambert at its most innovative and boundary pushing. Set designs are simple and effective with lighting design for both pieces by Jackie Shemesh doing much to set the mood and passage of time.

The pieces work well together and like few other dance companies, Rambert has the capacity to capture the zeitgeist and provoke meaningful thought.

★★★★☆   Graham Wyles    4 November 2023

Photo credit: Camilla Greenwell