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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Sarah Frater's rating
Reader rating
Cover-up: The costumes for The Comedy of Change are the equivalent of veling a painting
It’s often said that Mark Baldwin has revived Rambert since becoming its director in 2002. Not that the company was in A&E or anything but Baldwin, a former Rambert dancer, has revved things up with new work, new dancers and newly commissioned music.
This autumn’s visit to Sadler’s Wells shows the troupe in particularly fine fettle — despite rumoured problems in rehearsal, the programme has variety, depth and humour.
It opens with the new Tread Softly by the Welsh-Nigerian Henri Oguike who is working with Rambert for the first time. Set to Mahler’s orchestration of Schubert’s Quartet in D Minor, aka Death and The Maiden, it features Oguike’s paradoxical style that seems both nimble and earth-bound.
There are also his trademark detailing and synchronised squatting gallops, plus his strong eye for costumes — the women are especially elegant in soft‑edged neo-tutus.
The piece is a bit long and wanes to an inconclusive close but it provides ample evidence of Oguike’s talent.
No doubts about Carnival of the Animals by Siobhan Davies, the veteran dance maker and Rambert’s one-time associate choreographer. It’s based on Saint-Saëns’s wonderful if over-familiar tunes, with Davies evoking the beasts and their behaviour with sometimes sly, sometimes literal humour. The only reservation is the tailcoats, which somehow crease and restrict the dancers.
To close is Baldwin’s new The Comedy of Change. It’s his third creation for Rambert since becoming director and for my tuppence his best, with a pared down presentation and just seven dancers rather than the large casts he’s used before.
The result is greater clarity despite being a celebration of Darwin’s On The Origin of Species, a subject that could easily clot a work of
choreography. Instead it has unexpected mysticism, in part Yaron Abulafia’s temple- and void-like lighting, part Julian Anderson’s striking new score, and part Baldwin’ s choreography which is a variant on Merce Cunningham’s strain of contemporary hieratics.
As with Carnival, there’s a costume reservation. This is the unitards with integral full-faced balaclavas, which is the equivalent of veiling a painting.
Until 7 November (0844 412 4300, www.sadlerswells.com).
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
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