Scheherezade

Love this! And Benny Hill (or, more particularly, his signature chases) always reminds me of the time my daughter’s bag was snatched on a school trip to Barcelona. My daughter immediately set off in pursuit, followed by a number of her friends; two of the teachers joined the chase and as they all ran after the thief, various locals and tourists joined in, one of whom, when the thief was trapped in a dead-end alleyway, grabbed the thief’s shoes to prevent him making his escape, then gallantly retrieved and returned my daughter’s bag with almost everything intact.

I haven't yet posted my reaction to Thursday night's Creature, partly because I found the experience so disturbing and partly because I wanted to see how I would feel, and what I would recall, after the intervening weekend. I did stay to the end and whilst I agree that a clapometer at the interval would have recorded a very muted response, I do feel that the relentlessly gut-wrenching content of act 1 would have made it very difficult to erupt into loud and spontaneous applause. This was not, however, the reaction when the cast, choreographer, conductor and production team came onstage to take their bows to a prolonged and very noisy show of appreciation. I came to the production more or less blind, having deliberately avoided any videos, interviews, articles or other discussions about the work. I knew that the idea had moved on from Frankenstein to, possibly, Woyzeck, and correctly assumed that this would be portrayed in the distinctive Kathak-inspired manner that we have come to expect from Akram Khan (ie a variation on his uber-successful Giselle) but that apart, I hadn't a clue as to the content, the characters, their motivations or the message. Cue the repetitive, cut and paste voice-over giving a sinister emphasis to fragments of Richard Nixon's conversation with the Apollo 11 astronauts which, coupled with Jeffrey Cirio's jerkily ominous responses, signposted the fact that he was the victim of a less than benevolent experiment. I wasn't able to pick up on the sub-Arctic location or the reason for the experiment. I was, however, uncomfortably aware of Vincenzo Lamagna's highly amplified 'sound design' which was so overwhelmingly loud that I was extremely surprised to see that Gavin Sutherland and the ENB Philharmonic were also performing live. For those who left at half time, there was a fairly short and notably lyrical choral section towards the end that served as an effective counterpoint to the rest of the score. If asked to describe the production in six words, those words would be: powerful, poignant, terrifying, disturbing, uncomfortable and bleak. Unremittingly bleak. There was an unsettling sense of unease throughout that I found extremely difficult to shake off and for that reason I won't be returning for a second viewing in a hurry but for all of that I do feel that Creature has something to say and for that reason alone I would urge anyone who has not yet seen it to go, and sit through, at least once. Another, and many might say far more compelling, reason to go along is the quality of the dancing. Jeffrey Cirio is utterly electrifying as the eponymous Creature and Erina Takahashi's gentle, downtrodden keeper, Marie, served to highlight both the horrific fate of the Creature and the sadistic brutality of Fabian Reimair's Major. There were notable performances, too, from each of the remaining soloists: Ken Saruhashi's Captain was danced with dash and elan when given the chance but I couldn't at all figure out why he was there (perhaps the programme notes would have helped) and the same has to be said for Stina Quagebeur's Doctor, whilst Victor Prigent's sympathetic Andres, the only other character with any trace of compassion, could easily have been missed in this unsettling exploration of the darkest corners of humanity. As others have pointed out, all of these secondary characters were woefully undeveloped and underused when, with a little more dramatic narrative, they could have brought some much-needed light and shade to this bleak and overwhelming study of helplessness, hopelessness and despair. As it was, we were left with a world of control, exploitation and abuse; a world peopled by a robotic army ruthlessly trained to pledge absolute obedience to its sadistic commander, A world in which the worst face of the holocaust was transposed to a dystopian future devoid of compassion and all but the faintest glimmer of humanity. From the whoops and cheers at the end - and make no mistake, they were richly deserved by a cast that gave their absolute all - I would imagine that Creature will resonate far more with a young audience, although having said that, part way through the first act my daughter whispered to me: "I don't like this", and when, after the interval, she asked her equally young neighbour what her impressions were, her neighbour remarked that she would have preferred something uplifting like the recent run of Singin' in the Rain, more particularly during a global pandemic. Perhaps, then, it would be more accurate to say that Creature is more likely to appeal to a young audience that has not developed a prevailing appreciation for classical ballet. Because whatever my own misgivings, I cannot help thinking that for anyone who questions whether classical dance has a future, the answer would be: "This is it".

Thank you so much, Jamiel, that would be an enormous help!

Like many people on this forum, I have not particularly been following what Polunin has been doing of late but from what you report, Fiona, his foundation would seem to be doing some good work.

That would make an interesting stream.

Bracewell is indeed a busy boy with more performances than anyone in this run. Well deserved, too (and I also seem to forget that he isn't a principal). I think that the Bracewell/Hayward partnership will be sublime, if their previous pairings are anything to go by. Similarly, Magri and Corrales should be a great fit! It will be very hard to narrow down, I would love to see them all, but fear that funds will not stretch that far, particularly at the Swan Lake prices.

Yes, but she is the only non-principal apart from Reece Clarke and he seems to be Osipova's only partner these days.

Thank you for this, Jamiel. Canary Wharf isn't the best location for me as I live out to the West of London, tend to drive in and the traffic is usually horrendous crossing to the east, but I wish you the very best of luck and hope to come over some time.

I know of a number of double vaccinated people who have contracted Covid. Happily all of them have been singularly untroubled by it.

There seem to b a lot of reimagined works around at the moment.

Sounds gorgeous! Will it be on sale in the ROH shop?

Didn't I read somewhere that Michael Gove likes opera?

I was also in the amphi on the 13th but everyone around me was masked up. When I arrived unmasked from the street and said something along the lines of: "Oh yes, masks of course", the reply came back: "It's up to you". I put on my mask. Recently at Sadler's Wells, almost everyone was unmasked in the foyer, donned their masks to take their seats, promptly took them off and didn't bother putting them on again for the interval or when leaving.

Not at all bad. Nor are the accolades from Evert, Navratilova et al. Or the “sky’s the limit” predictions for future earnings. And who could resist her unaffected admission that she had no clue what would happen next, no care in the world, that she was just loving life.

And she seems absolutely lovely! Polite, natural, spontaneous, with no ego or sense of entitlement on show. Well done Emma indeed!

If we’re lucky.

As my grandmother always used to say: "there's only one thing worse than growing old and that's not growing old."

Just to round up, I saw the last show of the Sadler's Wells run and absolutely luuurved it! Congratulations to all for the slick and fabulous production values, the steady professionalism of the orchestra and the all round, toe-tapping, infectious pizzazz served up with infectious good humour and a cherry on the top by every member of the cast. Way to go, folks!

I’ll be there too. And equally looking forward to it.

Agreed on both counts.

My thoughts exactly, Fonty. Although I might have been tempted to say 87 rather than 67.

To qualify, and although I haven’t read the article or the book, I fully sympathise and empathise with the devastation he must have felt at the loss of his sister. And for her, there can have been no horror worse than fearing the pain and heartbreak that her diagnosis and suffering would bring to those who loved her.

I can’t speak for Sim but for me it’s because he always comes across as incurably smug and self-satisfied; the archetypal exponent of the metropolitan elite. I freely admit that I may be doing him a disservice but that’s how he presents to me.

I was about to throw in my two penn'orth with the posters who have only heard of Greg Wise and Robert Webb (and I'm with Sim on the subject of Greg Wise as I can't stand him either) when I realised that I could also add A J Odudu and Tom Fletcher, but my "let's get down with the kids" credentials may be terminally tarnished by the fact that A J Odudu's bouncy excitability and Mel B-type northern accent make me want to climb the walls and although I have heard of McFly, I only recognise Tom Fletcher by name (isn't he the blond one with glasses who never really looked like a member of a boy band?) because he now writes children's books that my grandson enjoys.