Review: THE PICNIC, Sadler's Wells

Billed as a "weird and wonderful gathering", Eva Recacha's full-length work The Picnic is inspired by the painting The Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch, dating from the 15th century. 

Content warnings tell us there will be flashing lights, partial nudity - and oranges. It's all very surreal as we take our seats, the fifteen performers already on stage at either side, watching and waiting.

The work was co-created with a group of collaborators including Scilla Rajalin (choreography), Alberto Ruiz Soler (sound), Jackie Shemesh (lighting) and Kate Lane (sceneography). The original painting has had many interpretations over the years including a strange depiction of the Garden of Eden, and so The Picnic also challenges us to decide what we are being shown.

Most of the performers are students at London Contemporary Dance School, a physically graceful group able to suggest a sense of story. As they emerge, one by one, into the world of The Picnic, via a ball or doughnut reminiscent of the central focal point in the Bosch painting, they become a carpet of bodies across the stage.

The Picnic is about pleasure, power, privilege, passion, playfulness and partying. It is as hedonistic as it is human, as vibrant as it is visceral, as supportive as it is strange. You may not be aware of the painting it is inspired by, but that doesn't really matter.

A use of text alongside the movement allows for a section about personality from the perspective of women attending a rave, and how they are approaching the night ahead. There is also a moment where two people connect despite a language barrier, and another where harmony brings the company together in song.

The fruit motif is clearly an echo of what is tempting or forbidden, but whether The Picnic serves as celebration or caution remains unclear. The movement and some of the ideas are excellent, but the ambiguity and complexity of the work sometimes obscures its effectiveness.

Does it live up to its blurb? Perhaps, but in exploring the idea of utopia through so many visual and aural stimulants it may ask too much of its audience at times.

The Picnic, co-commissioned by Sadler's Wells and South East Dance, is at the Lilian Baylis Studio until the 29 November

Photo credit: Rocio Chacon

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