RASPUTIN

A review by Abigail Kathleen

After a spectacular opening night, Sergei Polunin at The London Palladium, us lucky gals at The Live Review were given the opportunity to return to see Rasputin. Rasputin was the final performance of Sergei Polunin’s five day booking at The Palladium, a story of the mad priest who claimed to have powerful skills as a healer.

Sergei’s very own dance company, Polunin Ink performed, with Sergei himself stepping into Rasputin’s shoes, Alexey Lyubimove as Tsar Nicholas II, Semyon Velichko as Prince Felix Yusupov, Elena Ilinykh as Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna & Djordje Kalenic as Tsesarevich Alexey.

As with the first programme, Rasputin was choreographed by Yuka Oishi, and the music composed by Kirill Richter. Rasputin is a story full of sadness, passion, rage and madness and the masterful dancers of Polunin Ink deliver each emotion through every movement and sound.

In the beginning of the performance we are introduced to a happy family, playing together, through dance you can see the affection and warmth they all have for each other, as the sequence comes to an end the child has an accident, prompting the family to look to the priest with healing powers, Rasputin.

Through an enchanting performance you witness the priest heal the child, which prompts for the boys mother to say thank you and show her gratitude through an affectionate sequence. As it is modern ballet we see a mixture of ballet and contemporary dance.

At this point I should put a little disclaimer out to say although I grew up watching ballet with my grandfather, my knowledge of the dance is thin. This review is just a reflection from my own view and may or may not be an accurate description.

The first act was short and only lasted thirty minutes and the interval was thirty five minutes. In the second act we saw the head of the family, an army man get sent to war, and his wife fall into a passionate affair with the drunkard priest, Grigori Rasputin. Sergei Polunin performed the drunk and mad scene with such passion and energy, it was his a la second (please forgive me if I’m wrong) that drew bravos and applause from the audience.

When you read about Sergei, you hear a mixture of review on his character as a person but when you see him perform, none of it matters, he is truly talented. To wrap up the performance we see the death of Rasputin, during an evening of chess, food and wine, Rasputin is poisoned. The poison fails to kill him so he is then shot by his companion, the death of Rasputin was executed with energy, through the music you sensed the danger and the life leaving his body.

The stage was arranged as a chessboard, with some of the chess pieces being life sized and used as props, I really liked the set up, creative yet simple. I thoroughly enjoyed Polunin Ink’s performance, the energy and story telling through the choreography was thrilling.

BRAVO