Dance review: Maddaddam: 'This is no easy view'

Maddaddam ***

Wayne McGregor’s attempt to bring Maddaddam, Margaret Atwood’s dystopian trilogy, to the stage is less a ballet and more an overall theatrical experience. Never one to shy away from tackling challenging subjects – his Dante Project was inspired by Dante’s epic poem – McGregor’s piece is a three-act time-hopping journey to a bleak, unforgiving future.

Looking at a world which sees mankind all but destroyed through his own hubris, there are crackly voice-overs which attempt to explain the narrative; bloody film projections on a giant egg and some superb dancing along the way – but this will not appeal to audiences in search of the pretty and the palatable. Despite the extensive programme notes, it is often hard to work out exactly what is happening on stage, and the narration does not always help, but then McGregor has always demanded much of his audiences – this is no easy view.

The score is by Max Richter: pulsating, insistent and compelling. Richter’s music is an acquired taste and I’m afraid I have yet to acquire it. The set design, by We Not I, is clever but sometimes there is so much going on that it is hard to know where to look first.

McGregor extracts some extraordinary performances from the dancers, and though there is not much pure dancing in Act I, Act II gives us some remarkable feats of spinning (but little else). In the final act, there is some sort of resolution, with the dancers ebbing and flowing en masse, along with typical McGregor high extensions. On opening night, Joseph Sissens, Fumi Kaneko and Melissa Hamilton all shone in leading roles, making the best of the choreography they were given.

In an uncertain world currently afflicted by climate change and war, where Donald Trump is about to embark on another four years in the White House and Elon Musk is his new bestie, there are some who would say this dystopian vision should not be regarded lightly. We have been warned.