The Royal Ballet premiered MADDADDAM at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, on 14th November, 2024.
The three-act MADDADDAM ballet was created in collaboration with the National Ballet of Canada in 2022 and premiered there in the same year. The ballet is an adaptation of celebrated auther Margaret Atwood’s dystopian trilogy Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam by internationally most-wanted choreographer Wayne McGregor. The score is by Max Richter.
Here is the YouTube link to Royal Ballet’s Insight.
Following the opening night at the Royal Ballet, reviews are in.
The Guardian newspaper’s Lindsey Winship gave three out of five stars, saying “He has made a ballet that’s epic, ambitious, flawed, in parts inspired, in others wanting, often beautiful and not for a moment boring.”
“You applaud its wild aspiration, it enthrals in the moment, but it leaves a flicker of unfulfillment, because its creators are only human after all. Buckle up for the ride and revel in the dancing of these impeccably engineered bodies.”
Luise Levene of the Financial Times also gave three out of five, saying “Striking designs and superb dancing were let down by a fuzzy, overthought scenario.”
Other reviewers did not hide their disappointment. Slippedisc said, “Our renowned ballet reviewer had an unusually bad night.” The renowned ballet reviewer, Alastair Macaulay, branded MADDADDAM “a cartload of safely “modern” clichés that takes Covent Garden to a new low of tedium”.
The Times said, “the Royal Ballet’s messy mishmash of Margaret Atwood.”
What did you think? Please let me know!
The official trailer of MADDADDAM by the National Ballet of Canada