English National Ballet: Akram Khan's "Creature", Sadler's Wells, Spring 2023

[alison]

This started last night, so I'm starting a thread in case anyone's been to see it.

[Sim]

Doesn't look like there's been a stampede to Sadler's Wells...

[art_enthusiast]

Unfortunately can't go again as I'm away next week. I first saw Creature in September 2021 at Sadler's Wells, and I did quite like it despite being slightly deafened by the music!
My sister is seeing it for the first time in this run, might post her response here.

[alison]

47 minutes ago, Sim said:

Doesn't look like there's been a stampede to Sadler's Wells...

 

It was the last night of Woolf Works at the ROH, of course - that's potentially quite a clash for admirers of contemporary ballet.

[Tango Dancer]

Well that was interesting.  I am full of thoughts afterwards. 

 

The theatre was quite full tonight. 

 

I can't say I massively enjoyed the piece but I am glad to have seen it given the different reviews I've seen of it last time.  

 

I thought the music was dreadful and was glad of the ear plugs.  I don't know why it needs to be that loud.  Also why do they mess with Bolero?  It's a lovely piece of music that doesn't need whatever the heck they did to it.  The last piece with the singing was the least bad. 

 

I think my major problem was that the plot didn't really work for me and it wasn't always clear (even with the synopsis) what was going on.  I felt Marie had more chemistry with the floor mop than with Creature so the bits with them together really didn't work for me.  As a result the bit where Major assaulted and murdered her made no sense because I couldn't see a clear rationale for him doing so.  I also had no clear sense of what Marie wanted, whether she cared for Creature or what.  She was an object for Creature to love and Major to covet and I had no sense of who she was as a person. I mean none of the characters had much sense of identity but in her case it was more problematic.  This lack of personality meant that none of it resounded with me on an emotional level. 

 

So I think this didn't work for me as a piece because the premise didn't make sense to me.  

 

That said the dancing was nice.  I liked the group numbers, especially the one at the end of the first act.  The company moved beautifully together and the lines were beautiful and synchronised.  Aitor Arrieta is a lovely dancer with good lines and a lot of acting skill.  Emily Suzuki was beautifully light and elegant and Emma Hawes is a lovely classy dancer.  I also liked James Streeter as the major as the costume suited him very well.  I think I liked the group parts more than the pas de deux which were a bit brief and unfinished for my liking.  

 

So overall I'm glad I've seen it but don't think I'll go again and Akram Khan does not make my list of favourite choreographers.  It got a very good reception with lots of cheering and clapping from some people (so obviously it appealed to some people more than me).  So I am glad for the performers they got a good response.  

 

 

[San Perregrino]

Channelling my inner masochist and using ear plugs that block and cancel all loud noises up to 27 decibels I revisited Creature last night. My visit was specifically to watch Jeffrey Cirio again. I could still clearly hear the voiceovers and orchestration but at a level that allowed me to focus on the action onstage.  I put aside any attempt to attach a meaningful narrative to what was happening and viewed it in the abstract of sound and movement interpreted through dance. Jeffrey gives a tour de force performance that will stay in my memory for a long time. Apart from that though the production is not to my taste. I sincerely hope that it isn’t revived under the new Artistic Director because it will use resources better focussed elsewhere. The ENB company makes the most of what it has been given to do, there is no faulting their talent and commitment. 

[Nogoat]

After less than stellar reviews from the critics in the original run, I was somewhat concerned that what I regarded then - and still regard now - as a modern classic would fail to pull in the crowds.

However, the audience at last night's Creature not only filled Sadler's Wells to about three-quarters capacity, but the noisy approval at the curtain calls was more reminiscent of a full house.

Part of that response must go down to the incredible portrayal of the title role by Jeffrey Cirio - he is the prototypical Creature against which all others should draw inspiration - but some of the cast's characterisations also seemed more sharply defined than I remember from the last run, which made the very powerful, disturbing and challenging narrative even more searing.

I regard this ballet as a modern classic because, for me, it ticks all the boxes - the narrative, emotion, choreography, music, staging, and character portrayal by the dancers all combine to make the total greater than the sum of its parts. 

 

Like AK's Giselle, Creature is an 'angry' ballet - with its anger once again directed at the arrogance of power (particularly patriarchal power), and the abuse (particularly misogyny) that arises from it; there are also the additional, though linked, dimensions of alluded-to environmental destruction and the permissive effects of conformity in enabling authoritarian abuses and 'othering'.

That these issues remain after millennia of earth-bound 'civilisation' and, as suggested in Creature, seem destined to be exported to space, just adds to this anger.

 

I think Creature will be the defining role for Cirio - he has so grown into the role (or has the role grown into him?) and fine-tuned its nuances that the association will persist. The breadth and strength of the emotions felt and conveyed to the audience must have been as exhausting a roller-coaster ride for him as it was for us, but that doesn't even touch on the physical demands of the role, with him being on-stage and the centre of the action most of the time! He looked physically and emotionally drained at the curtain calls, though the rapturous applause definitely seemed to lift him.

 

Surprisingly, Fabian Reimair has managed to make the Major even more odious and repugnant than before. Given that he exerts absolute control in the microcosm of the research station, he makes manifest the view that 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'. There is no part of his behaviour that doesn't smack of arrogant entitlement and disdain and, like many others in his position, he seems to take a casual enjoyment in flaunting that abuse of power, as if to say 'and what are you going to do about it?'
Off the top of my head, and ignoring supernatural beings, I can't think of another male role that is so comprehensively malign. The Major is abhorrent, and I salute Reimair for making him so.

 

If Cirio is the definitive Creature, then Takahashi is pretty close to being the definitive Marie. A lowly cleaner with a higher aspiration to join the escape into space, her powerlessness makes the role fairly passive and her abuse at the hands of the Major depressingly inevitable. She gets one opportunity to rebel - by seeming to side with the Major in order to get a helmet to give to Creature, and so save him - which tragically leads to her murder by the Major.

In the first run, that murder took place in full view of the audience; with nothing else happening on stage we were forced to confront that uncomfortable reality or look away. In that sense, its staging was similar to the graphic re-enactment of Giselle's murder at the beginning of Act 2 of AK's Giselle, though the frenzied violence of Giselle's murder contrasts with the more cold-blooded killing of Marie. 

 

Nevertheless, something has happened between the first run of Creature and now, for the murder now takes place behind a 'screen' made up of some of the 'army', who observe it passively and emotionlessly (with the exception of one female recruit who stands off to the side, horrified, and is then threatened by the Major).
Were complaints made of this 'gratuitous' violence and these complaints acted on? I do hope not, but I wouldn't be surprised if so, - in which case I am really concerned about what changes may be made to AK's Giselle when it goes on tour this autumn. 
And, if this were true, why did the sexual assault on Marie by the Major (in the same place on the set) at the end of Act 1 remain, unchanged? What 'standards' are being applied here?
In real life, and appropriately, we may see on the news a gunman stalking the school corridors, but not the murders. In the 'safe space' of a theatre performance, should the same norms apply?

 

It was a shame not to be able to see Stina Quagebeur as the Doctor one more time, but I felt Sarah Kundi gave an excellent performance in which she walked that fine, but compromised, line between loyalty to 'the project' and concern for the safety of Marie under the predatory gaze of the Major.

 

That compromise between duty and morals was also admirably expressed by Ken Saruhashi as the Captain, though I still believe the conflict that led to the Captain's suicide (alluded to in a warning notice outside the auditorium) was most clearly expressed by Frola in the first run. For Frola's Captain, it was obvious the end could no longer justify the means. It is a shame he doesn't feature in this run.

 

The music to Creature is an interesting mix that adds to the pressurised, chaotic, out-of-control narrative unfolding on stage. Structuring the initial music around Nixon's phone call is inspired, and it gradually morphs to give a dystopian feel to the proceedings; the reworking of Purcell's Cold Genius for the 'experiment' that sees Creature put outside in freezing temperatures without protection is also inspired; the reworking of Ravel's Bolero provides the slow acceleration to the horrible inevitability of the assault on Marie by the Major; the choral work at the end, with haunting, drawn out chords reminiscent of Blade Runner, is a beautiful, sad accompaniment to the destruction of the station and the Creature coming to terms with the loss of Marie.

The music is loud - very loud - but the second circle wasn't vibrating in resonance quite as much as it did last time, so I think they might have turned the volume down a bit. Either that, or I'm becoming acclimatised to loud music having recently been to four performances of Woolf Works!

 

At every viewing so far, Creature has; engaged and challenged me; has toyed with my emotions; has caused me to think about difficult subjects seemingly 'baked in' to the human condition; and has made me think about the benefits and costs of scientific progress, exemplified by space exploration.

 

At one superficial level, Creature is reminiscent of a 1950's sci-fi 'B' movie such as 'When Worlds Collide', but at another I think it touches on some quite profound aspects of the important relationships between society, human behaviour and scientific progress. I've been grasping at something in the recesses of my mind since leaving Sadler's Wells last night, and it finally came to me earlier today.

I think Creature has the potential to become a modern classic because it resonates so well with the profound insights and sentiments expressed in the episode Knowledge or Certainty, from Jacob Bronowski's TV series The Ascent of Man - in particular the following quote...

 

"There are two parts to the human dilemma. One is the belief that the end justifies the means. That push-button philosophy, that deliberate deafness to suffering, has become the monster in the war machine. The other is the betrayal of the human spirit: the assertion of dogma that closes the mind, and turns a nation, a civilization, into a regiment of ghosts - obedient ghosts or tortured ghosts." 

 

If that sounds a bit pretentious, then so be it. But the best ballets, the ones that persist, do more than entertain; they make you question things; they teach you things.

 

[LinMM]

Yes the music for Woolf Works was a tad loud at times but what a total difference experience…..this has great rhythm soulfulness in parts and draws you in to the action. You can also enjoy listening to it as a Piece without the Ballet action.  Unfortunately the music to creature just repulses and never in a million years would I choose to listen to it out of choice!! 

[FionaM]

Thank you @Nogoat you express what I feel about this work, having seen it twice in the original run (Cirio and Hernandez in title role) and in the cinema.   I can’t make it to this run.  
 

The message is very bleak about our loss of humanity.  It makes me feel very uncomfortable about what’s happening in our world … and that is the point.   I’m not surprised the audience applaud the message and the portrayal.  
 

I congratulate Akram in tackling this challenging subject.  

[Sim]

Thank you @Nogoat for your wonderful review. I was just thinking the other day that you hadn’t posted for a while; very glad to see you back again!

[LinMM]

Yes I agree your reviews Nogoat are always extremely good reading!!
My rather critical comment about the music issue is not a criticism of your revue in any way!! 
It’s just rather unfortunate you brought up Max Richters Woolf Works music which I love and as I said unfortunately cannot get on with the music for Creature at all! 
Im not convinced that Creature will become a “classic” as I’m thinking it may depend too much on one or two dancers who the roles were created on. 
Not all ballets survive beyond a couple of years or so no matter how important a “message” they may carry. 
Probably most people who would turn up to see Creature are already in sympathy with the message aspect of the ballet. 
But for me it didn’t work as although I thought Cirios dancing was wonderful I didn’t really feel the sympathy/empathy I felt I should have done for the Creature. 

In real Life it can be truly dark at times but it’s never all dark …there’s always some light if you can see it.  
Humanity was totally abandoned by Khan it seemed in Creature. 
As I said in another post it was a bit too soon to see it again in this run but I will give it another go if it comes back in a few years ( and I’m still here lol) just to see how other dancers perform it and whether I can feel any differently about it than I do now. 


 

[Nogoat]

9 hours ago, LinMM said:

Yes the music for Woolf Works was a tad loud at times but what a total difference experience…..this has great rhythm soulfulness in parts and draws you in to the action. You can also enjoy listening to it as a Piece without the Ballet action.  Unfortunately the music to creature just repulses and never in a million years would I choose to listen to it out of choice!! 

 

Most of the time, but not always, I've found that music for dance/ballet that layers a recorded soundtrack over a live orchestra adds another dimension to the experience - eg AK's Giselle and Creature, and McGregor's Infra and Woolf Works. 

 

I agree, @LinMM, Richter's music provides a completely different emotional experience. I love the music to Woolf Works, and its emotional heft is one reason I ended up close to tears in three of the four performances I saw this current run (Osipova being the other reason!) - in particular those plaintive solo strings in Acts 1 and 3 that help convey and magnify the emotional content of what's happening on stage.

In contrast, the music to Becomings has almost zero emotional impact; it's chaotic, futuristic, bold and brash - and thoroughly enjoyable! It's also very loud, and certainly at the final performance I thought it got out of control at one point (there's a bit where the mixing desk seems to blend in some feedback, and it seemed a bit too prolonged and ear-splitting - at least at the front of the amphi where we were sat).

 

It's an interesting point about listening to the soundtracks on their own; the above ballets had music specifically written for them, so the relationship of the music to the ballet is stronger than, say, the three pre-existing, stand-alone symphonies used in MacMillan's Anastasia. So do they work in isolation?

 

Well, the music to all of the above is available on Spotify.

I listened to the Richter's album 'Three Worlds' a few weeks ago, following my first visit to Woolf Works at the ROH and my desire to help relive that wonderful evening. It didn't quite have the impact of the live performance (and Becomings ends on the solo piano rather than the upbeat finale in the ballet), but it came close.

In fact, in one respect the album improved on the theatre: I was going to write about that in a post about Woolf Works, but I never quite got round to putting it all 'on paper' in any coherent form, and since that ship has now sailed I might as well mention it here!

 

In Woolf Works at the ROH, the first and last acts are introduced with the spoken word, which I find helps prime the senses and emotions for what is to come; for a choreographer famously reticent to provide too much structure, it's a welcome framing device. 
On Richter's album, the second act, Becomings, also starts with the spoken word - a quote from Orlando. And my goodness, is that quote fitting! It sets up both the fragmented, diverse musical structure of Becomings and the choreography/staging so brilliantly that I'm left wondering why the creative team didn't use it in the ballet itself. In fact, because it fits so well, I'm left wondering if it was something that got dropped/forgotten about at an early stage.
(Mr McGregor, in case you read this forum, could you please consider (re-)introducing it to the ballet?)

Here is the quote...

"Memory is the seamstress, and a capricious one at that. Memory runs her needle in and out, up and down, hither and thither. We know not what comes next, or what follows after. Thus, the most ordinary movement in the world, such as sitting down at a table and pulling the inkstand towards one, may agitate a thousand odd, disconnected fragments, now bright, now dim, hanging and bobbing and dipping and flaunting..."

 

Gosh, just reading that again makes me think of the roaming spotlight, the lasers, the costumes, the shards of music, the foreground and background choreographic snapshots all competing for attention.

 

But back to Creature...

I have not yet plucked up the courage to listen to Creature on Spotify. I'm pretty sure it won't work as a stand-alone piece as well as Richter's Woolf Works, but I will have a go next week once the run is over and I'm hankering after something to help mollify the inevitable feeling I will have that I should have gone to more performances...

 

[JohnS]

I do hope @Nogoat will copy some of this post to the Woolf Works thread - I’m sure it would be of interest as not everyone will see the Creature thread.

[LinMM]

Yes agree John S! 
I love the quote and would be a great addition. 
The final speaking in Act 3 of Woolf Works is already very moving before the dance gets going. 
There was a programme on radio 4 this morning ( Melvyn Braggs 9am one I think) which touched on Virginia Woolf and Orlando came up …the book that is.. and apparently Woolf was trying to depict what it was to be a writer through the ages and women always came off worse as she said apparently imagine trying to write ( in a particular century) wearing this very restrictive corset!! She was very much into the practical personal experience of trying to write. 
Back to Creature! 
I wonder if age does have an affect on how you experience this ballet with its unremitting gloom. 
If you are in the “enddays” as such …let’s say 75 plus….maybe such gloom is just harder to take as it definitely gets nearer here today gone tomorrow! 
I wonder if much younger ages in the audience have the “light” of many years ahead so can absorb the gloom more easily! 
On the other hand age may have nothing to do with it! Perhaps just individual temperament and experience. 

[Nogoat]

1 hour ago, JohnS said:

I do hope @Nogoat will copy some of this post to the Woolf Works thread - I’m sure it would be of interest as not everyone will see the Creature thread.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, @JohnS. I've copied the relevant bit over.

[alison]

I think I'd describe much of the "music" for Creature as a soundscape rather than music as such.  But when I was watching it the other day from the front of the Second Circle I found it made my head buzz in a rather unpleasant manner (in retrospect, I think I may have been opposite a speaker?).  If I were going again, I might try the rear of the First Circle or rear Stalls, in the hope that it would deaden the effect somewhat.

[alison]

By the way, I suspect I'm right in saying that a number of changes seem to have been made to the production since last time around, although I'm probably not sufficiently familiar with it to be sure and/or I may be confusing it with the film version.  Can anyone confirm? 

[JohnS]

23 hours ago, Nogoat said:

Most of the time, but not always, I've found that music for dance/ballet that layers a recorded soundtrack over a live orchestra adds another dimension to the experience - eg AK's Giselle and Creature, and McGregor's Infra and Woolf Works. 

I can appreciate that adding a tape gives another dimension. But it rather opens the door for electronic manipulation of live music which to my ears is deeply unattractive. I thought there was massive distortion in Woolf Works with the singer being particularly badly amplified. There may be a need for some offstage electronic wizardry (Fafner/John the Baptist) but I can’t understand why amplification is ever used for the main orchestra. I recall a Nutcracker on the South Bank where the smallish orchestra was amplified - quite unnecessary and in my opinion truly awful.

[LinMM]

Sorry this is not a Creature comment but it belongs on an ENB thread! 
 

I have searched several pages but can’t find the one on Aaron Watkin taking over as AD of ENB. 
Im actually looking to see if there was any discussion there of a statement he made about dancers body types or whether that was on another ENB thread. 
A group I’m in is looking at different responses (among critics mainly) to this statement. 

[Guest oncnp]

2 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Sorry this is not a Creature comment but it belongs on an ENB thread! 
 

I have searched several pages but can’t find the one on Aaron Watkin taking over as AD of ENB. 
Im actually looking to see if there was any discussion there of a statement he made about dancers body types or whether that was on another ENB thread. 
A group I’m in is looking at different responses (among critics mainly) to this statement. 

this one?

 

 

[LinMM]

Thankyou so much for finding that when I couldn’t oncnp! 
However this was a statement he made more recently and not to do so

much with Rep etc. it was more to do with how he actually sees dancers and what he was looking for in a dancer. 
It may have just been mentioned “in passing” on the Forum Im not sure. 

 

[Guest oncnp]

3 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Thankyou so much for finding that when I couldn’t oncnp! 
However this was a statement he made more recently and not to do so

much with Rep etc. it was more to do with how he actually sees dancers and what he was looking for in a dancer. 
It may have just been mentioned “in passing” on the Forum Im not sure. 

 

 

This?

 

Ballet boss to pirouette stick-thin stereotypes into the wings (thetimes.co.uk)

[LinMM]

Yes that’s it!! 
Many thanks!! 
 

[art_enthusiast]

Bit off topic but does anyone know when sales open for ENB's Autumn triple bill, "Our Voices"?

 

The website says "Booking will open in Spring 2023" with no actual date, which isn't very helpful!

[LinMM]

Unfortunately cannot read this Times link either but I was wondering whether this was commented on by Forum members somewhere It may have come up more in the Doing Dance section. I’ll have a look there! 
It’s a fascinating area and Matthew Palluch’s reply to Monahan’s article in the Telegraph is very interesting and wonder if Monahan may have misunderstood Watkins original comment as I don’t think Watkins was saying literally anyone could do ballet and any body type would do ….well not at Professional level anyway….obviously as a hobby anybody can have a go! 
But like any high level physical skill ( Dance football gymnastics ice skating whatever ….at the highest level some bodies will definitely be better placed to perform what’s required( less injury prone etc) Watkins however seemed to be looking more at what is actually required of a modern Ballet dancer so seems to think that a more athletic and well developed build ( in the muscular sense) is more purposeful than just being very thin ( not that some thin people aren’t incredibly strong of course!) The more aesthetic ideal hitherto so well known in the Ballet World ….especially in the last 40 years I would say….may not suffice for the demands of modern performances. 
Sorry this is off at a tangent but Palluch’s article in Gramilano is really interesting and I think he got what Watkins meant. Just hope I’ve understood it properly as well as it does seem to be a way forward ….but had to read Palluch’s reply at least three times as not as erudite as he is!! 

 

[Emeralds]

3 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

Bit off topic but does anyone know when sales open for ENB's Autumn triple bill, "Our Voices"?

 

The website says "Booking will open in Spring 2023" with no actual date, which isn't very helpful!

I’m still waiting for their Albert Hall Cinderella casting. 😆 I can’t find any information on the ENB or Sadler’s Wells website about the triple bill booking either. I guess it’s late spring, then. Ticket sales for ENB mixed bills usually start at a relaxed pace. 

[Guest oncnp]

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