Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour, Ultima Vez, QEH Preview

Wim Vandekeybus’ Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour is a work for those who like their performances to provide plenty of novelty and food for thought. In other words, it’s not easy, laid back viewing.

A dance theatre piece for seven characters, it’s set in a distant future where the history of mankind has reached a turning point and the very existence of life on earth is threatened. A few people aided by a child have managed to reach a place of safety.

Safety, though, does not make for an easy life. On the contrary: there is continual conflict, caused by cultural differences, human urges and the child’s ambiguous relationship with the outside world.

Is the messiah a true figure, or simply an imaginary figure? Is mankind worth saving?

Mockumentary of a Contemporary Saviour is very much a Vandekeybus work, which is to say, as a choreographer, director and film maker, his work draws on a variety of artistic and stage devices in order to ask profound questions and achieve new effects every time.

As Vandekeybus himself puts it, ‘for me the form has to be different every time.’ But even though the form varies and progresses every time, Vandekeybus’ company Ultima Vez has developed its own movement idiom, to which it remains wedded.

That movement is the result of collaborations with dancers, circus performers, actors and musicians, covering a vast range of disciplines. Physicality, body versus mind, conflict, passion, intuition – these themes are constants in Ultima Vez's work.

The company was founded by Wim Vandekeybus in 1986 and has its base in Brussels and Flanders. As well as performing and touring Vandekeybus’ work, Ultima Vez (which, incidentally, is Portuguese for Last Time) is engaged in educational activities, as well as supporting and promoting up and coming choreographers.

The company was last seen at the Southbank Centre in 2013, so this short visit to the newly refurbished Queen Elizabeth Hall marks a welcome and overdue return to London.