The Most Incredible Thing @ Sadler’s Wells |

Easter is approaching and usually there are enough exhibitions to visit or films, theatre performances or ballets to go to around this period of time.

If you’re up for a ballet, check out (until tomorrow 7th April in London) “The Most Incredible Thing” at Sadler’s Wells.

First staged last year, the ballet is directed and choreographed by Javier de Frutos (with costumes by Tony Award-winning designer Katrina Lindsay) and its story is adapted by Matthew Dunster from the eponymous fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen.

The original story by Andersen, written and published in 1870, revolves around a rather bizarre contest launched by a king: the inventor of the most incredible thing will win half his kingdom and the hand of the princess in marriage.

A young man creates a clock that manages to conjure up at the stroke of the hour various figures – Moses, Adam and Eve, the Four Seasons, the Five Senses and many more. He is proclaimed the winner, but then another man smashes the clock and everybody thinks that this act is the most incredible thing they have ever seen. The wedding is arranged, but during it, the figures from the clock reapper, fight against the destroyer and defeat him, reuniting the clock’s creator and the princess.

Work on this ballet technically started five years ago when then-Royal Ballet principal, Ivan Putrov, asked Neil Tennant if Pet Shop Boys would write a piece of music for him to dance to at Sadler's Wells.

When the ballet was first staged last March it went sold out and, while this may have been attributed at the beginning by the popular electro-pop duo being involved in it, de Frutos's choreographies, Sadler's Wells' talented dancers and the striking set designs, all played a role in making "The Most Incredible Thing" a success.

There are quite a few interesting moments throughout the show, that could be considered as a blend of ballet, pop videos, cabaret moments (the presenter of the competition perfectly incarnates with her superficiality the average TV presenter from the usual bland talent show) and film installations.

One of my favourite bits – music and choreography-wise – remains the factory floor in the first act with its automata-like workers reminiscent of Soviet times (there are some dystopic moments in the factory scenes both in the first and the third act) and its music (Track: "The Grind") characterised by a repetitive though energetic and catchy rhythm.

The best part of the entire show (children will definitely enjoy it), is the one about the clock and all the various figures materialising and dancing around it giant cogs; the Five Senses are an ode to surrealism, while the Seven Deadly sins represented by male and female dancers in coloured tights and rather tacky wigs look like a transvestism act.

Moses and the Ten Commandments are instead transformed into an electronic number with some Busby Berkeley moments mixed with moods à la THX 1138, that also introduce a very incredible scene of the first man landing on the moon.

When the clock strikes 12, a long list of artists, writers, directors and people who have had an impact on our culture appears on the clock (members of the audience will definitely find their hero as the list includes a bit of everything, from Noam Chomsky and Anna Magnani to Andy Warhol, Pina Bausch and Hans Christian Andersen).

In a nutshell, there is a good mix of the biblical and the mythical in the show just like in Andersen’s fairy tale. The 82-minute score is a also a blend of pop, electronics and orchestra, and the videos by BAFTA-winning film animator, Tal Rosner perfectly complement this tale of creation, destruction and hope (so if you’re an artist and designer you may perfectly identify in it and in the "pains of creation"…).

From last week, the ballet has also got an interesting fashion connection: at the latest Russian Fashion Week, design duo Nina Donis used extracts of its score as the soundtrack for their Autumn/Winter 2012-13 runway show.

Since some of their new designs were reminiscent of workwear, the score from the factory floor scenes was absolutely perfect, so well done to them for the music choice (though this is not the first time they opt for the Pet Shop Boys as for their Autumn/Winter 2011-12 show they went for the "Battleship Potemkin" album).

The ballet is on until tomorrow in London, and it will then go on tour. If you think you’re going to miss it, you can check out last year’s production as filmed by the BBC (see video embedded in this post).

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