Original Music: Black Sabbath
Music Consultant: Tony Iommi
Director: Carlos Acosta
While the name may sound like the product of a random oxymoron generator working overtime, Black Sabbath – The Ballet is an excellent example of what can be achieved by pushing the envelope both in theatre and music. The texture, layers and skill of Tony Iommi’s compositions are revealed as far more than simple three-minute heavy rock anthems, and the dance and movement that accompanies them blurs the boundaries between traditional ballet, modern dance and everything that lies between and beyond it.
The Ballet breaks into three thirty-minute acts, each with a distinctive theme. Act 1 is billed as Heavy Metal Ballet and comes closest to what could be described as the Greatest Hits set as War Pigs, Iron Man and Paranoid, the three best known Sabbath songs dominate proceedings. Against the backdrop of an all-black stage, director Carlos Acosta and act choreographer Raul Reinoso, create a world where Black Sabbath themselves may not exist, but the spirits and emotions that shaped their music do.
The dancers also wear only black, with cloaks and full body costumes used to create a sense of struggle and futility that is broken with the introduction of guitarist Mark Hayward, looking like the classic 70s rock hero with long hair, denim and leather. The music he plays acts as a rallying call, emerging out of the nothingness to offer escape to the spirits. While it at times veers dangerously close to something that might have inspired a Spinal Tap parody of heavy metal live show excesses, it manages to stay just the right side of it as it builds to a dizzying, frenetic climax.
In Act 2 the costumes, tone and theme change. The dancers are also now clad in denim and leather, albeit looking more like a scene from West Side Story than Birmingham city centre, and the music is more expressive with the softer tones of some of Iommi’s work combining with Sun Keting’s composition to create an almost dreamlike feel. The title of the Act – The Band – alongside voiceover clips from band members and Sharon Osbourne, signals a shift to a narrative about four working class lads escaping from fate, achieving global success and taking full advantage of all the excesses that come with it. All of this is superbly illustrated through the choreography of Cassi Abranches. The movement gives a sense of repression replaced with liberation as bodies are dragged along before springing into individual vibrant life. The act triumphs as a transformation of the story of a working-class rock band into a piece of high art and poetry.
For Act 3: Everybody is a Fan, the focus shifts again. The dancers become the fans and there is a celebratory tone as the set becomes a cross between a film set, with lights and cameras at the side, and a live concert with a metallic demon standing on the top of an overturned wrecked car. The music and costumes of the first two acts effortlessly merge together under the guidance of lead choreographer Pontus Lindberg. The vocal on the reprised War Pigs moves from a solo to a crowd singing the words and the doom laden feel of the song shifts to something euphoric highlighting the kinship between band and audience. A solo dance where Tzu-Chao Chou, one of eleven principal dancers, is led by Hayward’s guitar playing creates an intimacy between music and listener where nothing comes between them, before a joyous reprise of Paranoid turns heavy metal dance tropes of air guitars, headbanging and more into a tightly choreographed statement of rejoice and abandonment.
It may seem like an illogical combination, but Black Sabbath – The Ballet proves time and again that sometimes things that don’t seem to make sense may actually be the actually perfect pairings.
Runs until 1 November 2026 | Image: Johan Persson
