Review: Return to the Forest, Sadler’s Wells

Return to the Forest is a spectacular visual and aural feast – an ambitious and intricately crafted production that sweeps audiences through an ever-shifting landscape of dance, puppetry, sound and installation. At 90-minutes, there is a huge amount to engage with, from vibrant ensemble choreography and inventive object manipulation to beautiful costumes, haunting music and moments of genuine wonder. If the production occasionally loses dramaturgical focus, it perhaps does so deliberately, inviting audiences to navigate its themes of cultural restoration, colonial collections and inherited histories for themselves rather than arriving at neat conclusions.

Created by Theatre-Rites, co-produced with Factory International, and co-commissioned by Sadler’s Wells, in collaboration with South African choreographer Gregory Maqoma, and directed by Sue Buckmaster, the production transforms the venue into something between an immersive installation, a promenade performance and a participatory theatrical ritual. The main auditorium becomes one vast open studio space, split initially into two, stunningly realised by set designer Jean Chan and lit with exceptional flair by lighting designer Guy Hoare.

The space itself becomes an active player in the storytelling. Initially, we wander through a museum-like environment where artefacts are displayed starkly on plinths beneath the watchful gaze of a menacing CCTV camera. Once the museum ‘closes’, thin red silk threads cleverly transform the space into a laser-security maze and audiences retreat to benches around the perimeter. The shift in atmosphere is immediate: suddenly the public are no longer passive observers but implicated witnesses.

Enter five would-be robbers – though these are not sleek professionals, but curious, playful disruptors, beautifully performed by Xolisile Bongwana, Natnael Dawit, Mayowa Ogunnaike, Simon Palmer and Teele Uustani. As they edge through the laser beams and begin removing objects from the collection, including an Ishoba ceremonial staff, a Gẹlẹdẹ mask and an ancient Mappa Mundi map, the narrative moves forward into a series of sequences where the artefacts seem to reclaim their own histories and spirits.

The choreography by Maqoma is thrilling throughout: muscular, fluid and emotionally charged. One particularly striking sequence involving a number of calabash water bowls becomes a meditation on nourishment, rhythm and shared humanity, passed intricately between performers while building towards a deeply moving live vocal section. Around it all swirls the magnificent soundscape by co-composers and sound designers Frank Moon and Domenico Angarano, which envelops the audience entirely, moving effortlessly between tension, melancholy, joy, comedy and celebration.

At times the narrative thread becomes elusive and there are moments where thematic connections are suggested rather than fully developed. But this openness is part of the production’s strength. Rather than delivering simple answers about repatriation or ownership, Return to the Forest trusts younger audiences to sit inside complexity and ambiguity and make up their own minds.

The final section, where the museum opens into a magical forest of giant creatures, music and celebration, is movingly uplifting. Children are invited to weave through the laser beams themselves, liberating some new objects from the plinths and joining the performers and a growing cast of adult-sized magical characters and creatures in an act of joyful release.

Billed for ages 8+, this is sophisticated work that resonates just as strongly for adults. Richly imaginative, politically thoughtful and visually stunning, Return to the Forest is a reminder of how ambitious theatre for children and families can be when artists are willing to embrace complexity, beauty and risk. Here, the importance of validating past narratives, cultures and inheritance is championed, showing how they can bring such positivity into our often fragmented and polarised contemporary world when explored with care and honesty.

Directed by Sue Buckmaster
Choreography by Gregory Maqoma
Co-composed and sound design by Frank Moon and Domenico Angarano
Set design by Jean Chan
Lighting design by Guy Hoare
Costume design by Kinnetia Isidore
Assistant choreographer: Miguel Altunaga
Production Manager: Gareth Howells
Puppetry designs by Alison Duddle, Naomi Oppenheim and Sue Buckmaster with Gelede mask made in collaboration with Bunmi Agusto

Return to the Forest plays at Sadlers Wells East until Saturday 30 May.