New Lost Dog, ROH Linbury Theatre

Ben Duke, whose stage company goes by the name Lost Dog, is one of the most irreverent and enthralling creators of dance-theatre working in the UK today. So, much anticipation surrounds his brand-new work for the Linbury stage, which throughout December will provide an alternative, or even a complement, to the ROH main stage traditional Christmas fare.

Duke has wreaked havoc with well-known cultural staples such as Romeo and Juliet and the myth of Orpheus with his irreverent, thought-provoking and deeply theatrical treatment, dissembling the established works to come up with something totally original. So, for example, in Juliet and Romeo, originally seen at the Linbury before extensive touring, he imagines Shakespeare's star cross'd lovers, having resisted death, as a middle-aged couple whose teenage passion has been eroded by the realities of everyday life.

In Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) Duke dives into Milton's famous poem to offer his own hilarious, and ultimately very moving interpretation of The Creation by a harassed and slightly bumbling God… and more recently he reinterpreted the story of Orpheus and Eurydice in Cerberus, a new work for Rambert.

In his new, as yet unnamed, secular work for the Christmas period at the Linbury Ben Duke draws inspiration from the myth of Medea, the sorceress who helped the Greek hero Jason get the golden fleece and married him. This being a Ben Duke work, don't expect a faithful account of their tragic and ultimately horrifying story; rather, we're told, here Jason is much shorter than you'd expect, and Medea doesn't kill her children… which is a relief, though we're also told that in this new Lost Dog work love and forgiveness are not always the answer.

Age Guidance: 14+