That British-born Bangladeshi dancer and choreographer Akram Khan received a standing ovation at the end of an exhaustive 80-minute solo work says something much more important than any critic could muster. Desh is, by turns, arcane and sweepingly powerful, bursting into visceral life after a slow start and culminating in sheer beauty. Somehow, Khan packs this conceptually dense work with characters, humour, inter-generational bickering and moments of almost overwhelming melancholy. Whilst on one level it plays the obvious culture clash card, beneath that it broods upon violence and the ever-present threat of inundation.
Khan's marriage of western and eastern dance vocabulary lurches from mime to exquisite, muscular detail. At times he is all power, at others a figure lost in the vastness of history, family and monsoonal deluge. That he keeps his energy and focus for the duration is praiseworthy in itself. Yet Desh is also driven by brilliantly devised trickery, from Michael Hulls' mesmeric lighting design to Jocelyn Pook's sparse and lovely soundtrack and the simply dazzling animations of London-based Yeast Culture. Indeed, Desh contains one of the most elegantly executed live performer/video interactions you could wish to see. And to top it off, this show takes the use of curtains to new heights. Although there are moments where you wonder quite why you are watching this, the dénouement makes it all worthwhile.
Running at MTC: Sumner Theatre until Sunday 21 October.
