Upstairs at the Royal Ballet, the audience enjoys Cinderella, but down in the studio theatre, the Christmas show is a version of Medea. Fairy tale above, one of the more harrowing Greek myths below. The ballet offers “joy, love, hope,” reproaches a droll Jean Daniel Broussé, “but you chose to be here instead?”
A person can have too much sugar at this time of year. Ben Duke’s show with his company Lost Dog was a smash in 2022, and returns with the same ace cast. Duke has forged a distinctive path, turning unlikely, epic material (Milton, Dickens, Shakespeare) into disarmingly wry dance theatre. Ruination is one of his best because it dials up the sombre story, daft jokes and horribly raw emotion.
In the underworld, Broussé’s Hades presides over the dead (wearing a chic embalming apron but, curiously, no pants). Medea, responsible for Greek tragedy’s infamous infanticide, and her estranged husband Jason have both arrived among the dead, but an aggrieved Jason accuses his ex of murder and demands a posthumous custody battle.
With Hades and Persephone (Anna-Kay Gayle) as their counsel, and a bewigged skeleton presiding, the trial retreads the accusations against Medea: helping Jason snatch the golden fleece; killing her brother during the escape; slaughtering Jason’s new bride and her own young sons.
The ancient Greeks were masters of reframing stories to find new angles, someone else to blame. Here, Medea and Jason fight for the right to tell the story, to keep their purchase on motive and culpability. Was she framed, or does she do terrible things in the face of terrible choices?
Duke’s work sits on the cusp between dance and theatre (next spring his quizzical take on Paradise Lost comes to London with Olivier-nominated actor Sharif Afifi). His performers have good voices, but even more eloquent bodies – this isn’t the most beautiful choreography you’ll ever see, but the moves are clear as crystal, scythed as steel. Hip-bumping flirtation becomes a reckless duet; everyone dons party masks for a jaunty Mack the Knife.
Hannah Shephard’s scathing Medea is well matched with Liam Francis’ belligerent, gangly Jason, winning over his ladies with goofball dance moves. As Shepherd’s quest turns to despair, she is held aloft and also held back – Duke’s dances are as much struggle as support, ideal moves for these muddled motives.
The staging is stippled with arresting images, and buoyed by music from Chopin to Radiohead. There’s no sense of triumph at the conclusion. Instead, the rich-voiced Sheree Dubois takes the unresolved mess of emotion, the ruination of all these lives, and sings it out to Nina Simone’s Isn’t It a Pity.
In this afterlife, memory is steeped in regret and oblivion may be a blessing. And Ruination is truly a festive show like no other.
Royal Opera House, to January 4; rbo.org.uk
