Edinburgh International Festival
Dance
Coppelia
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Mary Brennan
Five stars
‘Reinventing humanity.’ Bold, provocative words that govern every activity at NuLife, the Silicon Valley lab where Doctor Coppelius is stretching the boundaries of Artificial Intelligence with his robots.
Reinventing Coppelia: a bold, provocative – truly trail-blazing – production that sees this Scottish Ballet premiere expanding the boundaries of live performance on-stage. And if the Doctor’s radical experiments come adrift, the company’s new work - directed and choreographed by Jessica Wright and Morgann Runacre-Temple – is a creative triumph, where modern technologies interact supportively with fiercely fine dancing.
The plot line is recognisably akin to that of the original 1870 ballet. Swanhilda is now a present-day journalist visiting NuLife with her fiancé Franz who becomes smitten with the Doctor’s latest creation, Coppelia – an on-screen beauty who (briefly) enters the real world.
Why Franz (Simon Schilgen), who has a vital, flesh and blood partner in Swanhilda, should find Coppelia so alluring is a cogent pointer to how screen imagery, avatars et al have gained such traction in our daily lives. Moreover, as Rimbaud Patron prowls in and out of the live action with his camera – real-time footage projected on an upstage screen – we’re reminded of how selfies and surveillance capture us, sometimes secretly.
Constance Devernay-Laurence is a thrillingly mettlesome Swanhilda, bravely melding with Coppelia’s on-screen image. The ensuing duet with Doctor Coppelius (an athletically hyper-charged Bruno Micchiardi) astutely questions his intentions: he treats her like a plaything, even as she plays him for a deluded fool. It is utterly compelling.
As are the ensemble sections where robotic movements infiltrate pointe-work, and the company are electrifyingly precise and in the groove. The specially composed music brings morsels of Delibes’s score into a vibrant, witty mix of beats and atmospheric sounds – another awesomely detailed layer that, like the dancing throughout, resonates with an intelligence that is intrinsically human.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here