Writer: Ben Duke
Directors: Ben Duke and Lucy Morrison
Translating Milton’s epic poem to a 75-minute dance/theatre show would be an impossible task, and Ben Duke’s Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) admits that from the jump. Instead, it offers some primal questions about the commonality of life at the highest conceivable spiritual plane and the most mundane earthly level. Sharif Afifi’s performance is lively with charm as he leads us through the tale of God’s creation of Heaven, dispute with Lucifer, and creation of Earth. All the while, an honest portrayal of life as a parent and artist is woven through the script.
Duke’s piece knows that the tales we tell ourselves about God tell us more about ourselves than anything else. In humanising God, we see a flawed creator with deep-rooted control issues. Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) asks us what it means to make something that might see the flaws in us, that might frustrate us, inhibit us, or annoy us. These themes are magnified by Afifi’s performance which is fragile while maintaining a nuanced and flawed masculinity.
In some ways, it is a piece for parents, and though its message resonates further, for all those who make things, there is a concise power in questioning what it means to create when the thing one has created has an independent will. Perhaps the greatest flaw in Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) is in how quickly it conveys the parallel between God creating everything and parents creating children. Once the neatness of this thought has been understood, there is not much left that the piece has to offer. It declines to fully leap into the story of God or the story of the father and loses out on either depth or fresh ground by continuing to live in between the two.
Production here is intentionally rough around the edges. Doing so enables the spiritual to be brought down to Earth and for the piece to have its charming fragility. Nevertheless, with a core idea that is grasped so swiftly, and with little in the way of astonishing choreography or set design, Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) feels like it misses out on an opportunity to captivate as well as charm.
Despite its flaws, Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) is a piece that reverberates with humour thanks to Afifi’s engaging performance. It brings the epic down to earth and has a thorough honesty throughout about parenthood, creation, and the failures of the heart.
Runs until 5 April 2025
The Reviews Hub Score
Not quite paradise
