The Most Incredible Thing at Sadler’s Wells

The Most Incredible Thing is a collaboration between choreographer Javier de Frutos and pop group Pet Shop Boys. The basis of the story is a Hans Christian Andersen tale – in a mythical world the king offers half of his kingdom and marriage to his young princess to whoever can create ‘the most incredible thing’. The story is moved along with clever use of video screens so there is no danger of the audience getting lost.

I found the performance to be rather hit and miss. During the first part of the show the music totally overpowered the dancing – it was loud and irresistible and completely stole the limelight from some clever choreography. A further hindrance was the rather clunky costumes worn by the company. I appreciate that we were seeing a rather oppressed community (visual references to communist Russia) but for dance the costumes should flow with the dancer, regardless of how dowdy they must look. The main roles of the princess, the shy inventor (Leo) and the evil baron (Karl) were well cast and well performed. I enjoyed the scene where Leo overcame his awkwardness with the three muses and discovered a gentle gracefulness, which he carried through to his scenes with the princess. Karl was athletic and agressive and there were some fine moves which demonstrated his power over his workforce. The scene where Karl first met the princess and exerted his authority over her was spoiled by some rather jarring music – jarring in the way that the music was full of hope whereas the scene on stage was anything but full of hope.

I left the venue feeling that the peformance did not live up to the hype. The dancers were excellent but the storytelling was patchy at times and I am not entirely convinced by the JdF and PSB collaboration.