Dance / Neon Dance
Review: Last and First Men, Bristol Beacon – ‘Truly extraordinary’
When Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson died tragically in 2018, he left a towering musical legacy. Having scored masterpieces like Sicario and Arrival for Denis Villeneuve, arguably the best and second best films of the 2010s, Jóhannsson’s remarkable genius was well established at the time of his death.
What we didn’t know then, however, is that the great Nordic genius would bequeath unto us in death one final work: his directorial debut.
It was under these unhappy circumstances that Last and First Men was released, two years after its director’s death, to critical acclaim.
Enter Neon Dance. Yesterday evening, Bristol Beacon played host to the UK Premiere of Last and First Men, an eponymous performance piece with live orchestra.
The film, completed by Yair Elazar Glotman, is projected in 16mm with narration by Tilda Swinton. On stage, a trio of dancers perform for 65 minutes whilst in the foreground, the orchestral ensemble Echo Collection executes Jóhannsson’s haunting final score.
Set two billion years in the future, Last and First Men depicts the final human beings that will ever exist, as they reckon with that fact. The performers – Fukiko Takase, Kelvin Kilonzo, Aoi Nakamura – are sublime. The skill and craft of these movers is authentically jaw-dropping.
Mikio Sakabe and Ana Rajcevic’s costume design is unbelievably beautiful and effective. That they wrestled attention from Jóhannsson’s gorgeously brutalist visuals is to their enormous credit.
The writing, narrated by Tilda Swinton, is wonderful. The staccato poeticisms recall irresistibly to mind the work of Richard Brautigan.
In conceiving of and directing this work, Neon Dance’s artistic lead Adrienne Hart has accomplished something truly extraordinary. Last and First Men is humanity hauntingly euologising itself.
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Find out more about the show, and the company, at www.neondance.org, or follow @neondance.
All photos: Miles Hart & Parsifal Werkman
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