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Photo credit @ Todd MacDonald

Review: Theatre of Dreams, Sadler’s Wells

Hofesh Schechter Company’s Theatre of Dreams is a fascinating demonstration of how dance can affect you as deeply as any other visual, dramatic or performance piece. We are left to our own thoughts and imagination as to what we take away from this amazing work so these are my thoughts and takeaway messages: they may not be the same for everyone. With clever, precise staging we are shown glimpses of other worlds. Imagine being on a bus and looking in the windows as you pass, seeing other people’s lives playing out. It feels voyeuristic, personal, but fascinating and slightly…

Summary

Rating

Excellent

Fluid beauty that will remain with you. Exceptionally thought provoking.

Hofesh Schechter Company’s Theatre of Dreams is a fascinating demonstration of how dance can affect you as deeply as any other visual, dramatic or performance piece. We are left to our own thoughts and imagination as to what we take away from this amazing work so these are my thoughts and takeaway messages: they may not be the same for everyone.

With clever, precise staging we are shown glimpses of other worlds. Imagine being on a bus and looking in the windows as you pass, seeing other people’s lives playing out. It feels voyeuristic, personal, but fascinating and slightly naughty. The glimpses continue: are they running to work, to meet lovers, to escape something?  Are they protesting, fighting? Just soak it all in as we move on.

The energy is electric and relentless; the music rattles the back of your seat and throbs through you. As the performance progresses we are taken on a round the world voyage experiencing different cultures, religions, situations of love, hate, passion. The music, as you might expect, is an integral part of the performance with hints of, to my ears, Laurie Anderson, System of a Down, the call to prayer and Ravi Shankar.

The most haunting piece is the beautiful song ‘I remember’ written and performed by Molly Drake, Nick Drake’s mother. Molly’s words encapsulate what we are watching. We are all experiencing the same piece but will take away different things – “When I had thought that we were ‘we’, but we, were ‘you and me’”. Does this perhaps mean that however we think of ourselves as being joined at the hip with a culture, community or other human being we are in fact alone? There are instances throughout the performance where dancers are alone, looking in, seeing but not partaking, potentially lonely souls. Like most of the performance these are also fleeting glimpses yet they leave an impact.

But don’t think the performance is all about deep introspection. Here comes the band! Alex Paton, Sabio Janiak and Yaron Engler give us light, heat, samba and salsa all in one, paired with the cultural touches and influences of that world trip we’re on. It’s a feelgood section with the audience invited to get up, dance and feel free, and serves the purpose of an interval to give us a short break from the intensity of the dance – and it is intense, from the first steps right through to the end. I am forever in awe of the fluidity that dancers can achieve with their bodies – the strength it must take to hold some of those poses. For ninety minutes they do not stop and most of the sections are so physical they must be exhausted at the end.

Not wanting to give away the conclusion, but it deserves to be mentioned, the piece is rounded off by a backdrop of a theatrical proscenium arch, our theatre of dreams. Is all the world a stage? Are we merely players?

This is a remarkable evening and I can’t wait to see what Hofesh Shechter makes of Oedipus at the Old Vic next year.


Choreography and Music by: Hofesh Shechter
Lighting Design by: Tom Visser

Theatre of Dreams plays at Sadler’s Wells until Saturday 12 October. More information and booking details can be found here.

About Wendy Fisher

Wendy’s love of the theatre and all things creative stem back to a fateful school trip to the Aldwych where she got the opportunity to improvise on stage with the RSC team. It took another 50 years before she got that chance again, this time via the Old Vic. Having performed in several fringe shows and now writing and directing Wendy takes every opportunity to see and learn from new works and views them with the understanding of just how hard it is to put new work out there. Wendy’s main claim to fame is appearing as the Head Midwife in House of the Dragon where she used her professional expertise as a midwife to advise on the infamous caesarean scene.