Last and First Men review – sci-fi dance can’t match Tilda Swinton’s cool apocalypse

Bristol Beacon Composer Jóhann Jóhannson’s moody film, narrated by Swinton and inspired by a classic novel, gains little from a live dance interpretation Is it possible for the apocalypse to be boring? Because this one is, a bit. It’s placid, indifferent, certainly resigned. There are so many elements going into this multi-genre performance, but the result is less than the sum of its parts. The basis is a production originally made for Manchester international festival in 2017, a film and score by the late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson (best known for Arrival, Sicario and The Theory of Everything), with text adapted from the 1930 sci-fi novel of the same name by Olaf Stapledon.The narration is coolly voiced by Tilda Swinton, describing the last humans, two billion years from now. They have evolved way beyond current Homo sapiens, communicate only by telepathy and create a few select offspring, each 20 years in gestation. But obliteration is coming. The new element of the production is three dancers (Fukiko Takase, Kelvin Kilonzo and Aoi Nakamura) from choreographer Adrienne Hart’s Neon Dance. Their place is less certain: advanced creatures – with costume props like a glove that extends a hand into a spear – but also fragile humans fiddling while Rome burns. Continue reading...

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