Creature
Author(s): Akram Khan
Company: English National Ballet
Running time: 2h 00min approx
Set in a dilapidated former Arctic research station, the Creature has been conscripted by a military brigade to a bold new experimental programme. Here he is tested for his mental and physical ability to adapt to extreme environments, isolation and homesickness; vital qualities in mankind’s proposed colonisation of the ‘final frontiers’ on earth and beyond.
Creature is an unearthly tale of exploitation and humanity, inspired by Georg Büchner’s expressionist classic Woyzeck, with shadows of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Drawing on themes of abandonment, loneliness and the fragility of the mind, Creature tells the story of an outsider and the search for belonging.
For Creature, Guest Artist and former Lead Principal of English National Ballet Jeffrey Cirio returns in the title role, a performance which saw him win the Critics Circle National Dance Award for Outstanding Male Classical Performance and included as one of Pointe Magazine’s standout performances of 2022.
