✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper


Sign up by Email or Facebook.

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we sent newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Turning tips into memories

Get started Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Kids
  • Benefits
  • Membership
  • Get Started
  • Membership
  • Benefits
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Dance

Aisha and Abhaya review ★★★★★

21 Jan 20 – 09 Feb 20, 19:45 mats 1, 2, 8 & 9 at 14:45 Dur.: 1 hour no interval

Aisha and Abhaya at the ROH’s Linbury Theatre is an ambitious multifaceted collaboration that fails to gel into any kind of coherent proposition

By Teresa Guerreiro on 24/1/2020

1 CW reader is interested
Rambert dancers in Aisha & Abhaya (c) 2020 ROH & Rambert photo Foteini Christofilopoulou
Rambert dancers in Aisha & Abhaya (c) 2020 ROH & Rambert photo Foteini Christofilopoulou
Aisha and Abhaya review 2 Aisha and Abhaya review Teresa Guerreiro
As the saying goes, too many cooks spoil the broth, all the more so if, as in Aisha and Abhaya, they are all working from very different recipes.


A joint Rambert and Royal Ballet production, Aisha and Abhaya has film by the film maker and 3-D animator Kibwe Tavares, here making his debut as a stage director, choreography by Sharon Eyal with music by her regular collaborator Ori Lichtik and GAIKA, and projections designed by Gillian Tan, with Uldus Bakhtiozina credited as costume designer and style supervisor.


The house lights go down to the sound of fierce waves crashing ashore. Slowly film of two drenched, richly appareled young women struggling out of the sea is projected onto a wide screen that hides the stage.


Aisha and Abhaya is about refugees. Deliberately presented so that you can’t place them in any one country, the two girls are the Everyman of the current global refugee crisis; and after the prologue that sees them come ashore, we’re into the first part of the film, 'The Journey.'


They join up with a group of other refugees, and we see them struggling through harsh terrain, day after day after day. The colours are washed out, the camerawork disquietingly shaky and nervy. On they trek.


As they reach the relative safety of a rock cave, the screen is pulled back to reveal the stage where seven Rambert dancers stand.


Now Sharon Eyal takes over with her trademark choreography set to the insistent, headache-inducing techno beat of Ori Lichtik’s score. Earplugs are on offer prior to the show, though perhaps ice-packs might have been more useful…


Eyal’s choreography is distinctive enough, but exists in a world of its own, irrespective of context. Thus her heavily made-up dancers, the men with bare torsos, mince and strut around on tiptoe, arms akimbo. Their movements follow syncopated repetitions, with plenty of pelvis action.


Deliberately provocative in their fluid sexuality, they are creatures of the night inhabiting some vaguely disreputable dive, moodily lit by Natasha Chivers; while behind them a moving black and white projection suggests an anonymous mega-urban nighttime landscape.


There is a hypnotic, head-banging quality to this kind of choreographic/sound combo, but it tends to go on for far too long; and in the case of Aisha and Abhaya it’s hard to see how it fits in with the prevailing narrative.


Another section of film, entitled 'Before', briefly shows the girls' carefree life before war turns them into refugees; and the piece ends with a section where a motion capture shoot depicting the huddled masses of refugees, is projected onto the curved backcloth, framing the dancers on stage.


And really, we’re left none the wiser...


Age Guidance: 11+

by Teresa Guerreiro

What Aisha and Abhaya review
Where Royal Opera House, Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD | MAP
Nearest tube Covent Garden (underground)
When 21 Jan 20 – 09 Feb 20, 19:45 mats 1, 2, 8 & 9 at 14:45 Dur.: 1 hour no interval
Price £3-£45
Website Click here to book



Most popular

Things to do this weekend. Picture: NYCB's Prodigal Son
Things to do in London this weekend: 26 - 28 February
Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing (Photo: Lionsgate/Sky)
New to Netflix UK: March 2021
Alicia Vikander in The Glorias, Sky Cinema (Photo: Sky)
What to watch on TV this week
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • Parsons

    Parsons is a thoroughly old-fashioned spot, with a maroon-tiled facade, a white tiled interior and antique mirrors on which are written their daily changing selection of fresh whole fish which make up most of the mains. We love it.

    Book Map
  • Mamie's

    Make everyday pancake day. Serving exquisite savoury and sweet crêpes, from childhood favourites like lemon and sugar to more sophisticated combinations, Mamie's may well be the home of the best pancakes and galettes in London.

    Read more...
    Book Map
  • Homeslice, Fitzrovia

    Laid back in its concept and style, the restaurant's premise is simple: delicious 20-inch pizzas, which can also be ordered by individual slice. Homeslice draws a relaxed crowd, and is remarkably good value. Eating at this no cutlery/paper plates pizzeria can be a joyously messy affair.

    Read more...
    Book Map
1

Aisha and Abhaya

Rambert

The Royal Ballet

Linbury Theatre

Kibwe Tavares

Sharon Eyal

Ori Lichtik

GAIKA

Gillian Tan

Natasha Chivers

Uldus Bakhtiozina



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • What is Culture Whisper membership
  • Corporate membership
  • Give a gift membership
  • Retrieve a gift membership
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×