✕ ✕
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

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send 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

Support Us 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
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
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

Review: Note to Self, Rambert live-stream ★★★★★

16 Sep 21 – 18 Sep 21, 15:00 on 16 Sept, 20:00 on 17 and 18 Sept, Dur.: 55 mins

Rambert’s autumn live-stream, Note to Self, offers a powerful and deeply moving insight into the devastating effects of creeping dementia

By Teresa Guerreiro on 17/9/2021

1 CW reader is interested
Rambert2 in Benoit Swan Pouffer's Note to Self.  Photo: Camilla Greenwell
Rambert2 in Benoit Swan Pouffer's Note to Self. Photo: Camilla Greenwell
Review: Note to Self, Rambert live-stream 5 Review: Note to Self, Rambert live-stream Teresa Guerreiro
It starts gently in a pre-dawn ordinary room with the camera slowly panning over everyday objects – a picture, a wall clock. In the background a radio is broadcasting the Shipping Forecast. Gradually, though, the banal everyday anywhere becomes a little odd: a plethora of prominently displayed Post-it notes bring insistent reminders: ‘water the plants at 10am every day.’


Then we see the protagonist, Eve. She takes her tea mug to the microwave, clearly having forgotten she’d already put a mug in there. She watches the clock repeatedly. Rearranges a bucket to gather a leak from the ceiling. All this with a dreamy smile on her face, as she obsessively rubs finger and thumb over a single earring.


And then you realise with a pang that Eve is going through the first stages of dementia, when simple gestures become rituals, and memories become ever more fleeting and unreliable. As the realisation hits, the camera takes us and Eve into her inner world, and what follows are Eve’s memories – jumbled, sometimes happy, often painful, both realistic and surreal, sharp and diffuse.


A hazy ballroom is peopled by figures from different times, dancing to a song by the 1960s French chanteur Adamo.



Rambert2 in Benoit Swan Poufer's Note to Self. Photo: Camilla Greenberg
Is she remembering her youth? Or reimagining it?


Later the images become jagged. Pulsating strobe lighting reveals disquieting fragments of frenzied bodies. Dark, nightmarish scenes bring out ever more confusing characters. One man shakes another violently; a masked crimson-clad creature emerges to hug Eve.


The deeply moving finale sees Eve find a measure of peace, surrounded by a sea of fresh faces, cleansing water cascading over them as a gospel choir promises ‘soon it will be done, trouble of the world.’



Rambert2 in Benoit Swan Pouffer's Note to Self. Photo: Camilla Greenberg
Note to Self, created by Rambert’s artistic director Benoit Swan Pouffer for the junior company, Rambert2, is dance theatre of the highest order, perfectly judged for the small screen. We're unlikely to see a more intense, sensitive and delicate portrayal of the onset of dementia any time soon.


It helps, of course, that it has as its anchor Karlina Grace-Paṣeda, a charismatic actress of tremendous expressiveness, whose every measured gesture, every smile, every dreamy look speaks volumes and goes straight to the heart.


The 11 dancers of the 2021 cohort of Rambert2 are exceptional, as befits the crème de la crème of more than 600 young dance graduates from all over the world who applied to join Rambert’s junior company. Their strong technique combines with acting ability convincingly to portray the vagaries of Eve’s mind.


An atmospheric score arranged by Micka Luna, sets and costumes by David Curtis-Ring, and Bani Mendy’s impeccable cinematography all contribute to make this livestream – performed through various spaces of Rambert’s Southbank building as we watch – a remarkable achievement.


You must book through the website of Rambert's partner theatre, the Roundhouse, which will send you a link and access code.


Note to Self is recommended for ages 12+


by Teresa Guerreiro

What Review: Note to Self, Rambert live-stream
Where Online | MAP
When 16 Sep 21 – 18 Sep 21, 15:00 on 16 Sept, 20:00 on 17 and 18 Sept, Dur.: 55 mins
Price £10-£20 (+booking fee)
Website Click here to book



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 17–19 March
Things to do in London this weekend: 17–19 March
Best art exhibitions in London. Photo: Thin Air at the Beams
Top exhibitions on now in London
Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher in My Brilliant Friend season 4, HBO/Sky Atlantic (Photo: HBO)
My Brilliant Friend, season 4, Sky Atlantic: first-look photo, release date, plot, cast
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).
1

Rambert

Rambert2

Benoit Swan Pouffer

Note to Self

The Roundhouse

Micka Luna

David Curtis-Ring

Thomas Bowles

Karlina Grace-Paṣeda

You might like

  • Hofesh Shechter Company, Clowns © Rahi Rezvani

    Review: Hofesh Shechter Company, Double Murder ★★★★★

  • Katja Khaniukova and Jeffrey Cirio in Manon. Photo: Laurent Liotardo

    ENB launches new apps for home content

  • Matthew Bourne's The Midnight Bell, Liam Mower and Company.  Photo: Johan Persson

    Review: Matthew Bourne, The Midnight Bell ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • 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).
×