Jim Henson’s 1982 film was a stark departure from his signature muppet cheer (“Miss Piggy would not be kind to The Dark Crystal,” snarked the New York Times). Dark, direful and bereft of songs, it only gradually found a devoted audience. Heretically, I wonder if the tale hits harder in Wayne McGregor’s dance-led distillation than as the original portentous new age fable.
In Henson’s tale, the planet Thra is riven by conflict between the power-crazed Skeksis and peaceable Mystics. The hero’s quest to repair the dark crystal might also heal a natural world which totters on the brink. The intervening 40 years since release have only heightened the urgency of Henson’s ecological foreboding.
