Following the pivotal impact of his reimagined Giselle, Akram Khan returns to English National Ballet (ENB) for his third collaboration with the company. "A tight-wound drama that never lets up" (The Independent), Creature is an unearthly tale of exploitation and human frontiers inspired by Georg Büchner’s expressionist classic Woyzeck, with shadows of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Drawing on themes of abandonment, isolation and the fragility of the mind, Creature is the tale of an outsider and the search for belonging.
Khan is joined by a brilliant creative team of Academy Award-winning designer Tim Yip, composer and sound designer Vincenzo Lamagna, lighting designer Michael Hulls, and dramaturg Ruth Little. The international premiere presentation of Creature in Chicago will include live music performed by Chicago Philharmonic Society, conducted by ENB Music Director Gavin Sutherland.
Akram Khan on Creature: “I am exploring our very destructive nature of wanting to control everything…man-made systems, nature, animals, fellow humans, our future, and even our past…we want to control it all. And what I am realising is that you can’t control a living thing, without destroying what’s alive about them.”
A co-production between English National Ballet and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen
Co-Producer: Sadler’s Wells, London
Production Partner: The Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater
This performance contains flashing lights, loud music, haze effects, and depictions of sexual violence and abuse. The February 26 performance at 2 p.m. will include audio description - please contact access@harristheaterchicago.org for more information.
