Brighton Festival 2025
Theatre of Dreams
Hofesh Shechter Company
Genre: Dance
Venue: Brighton Dome
Festival: Brighton Festival
Low Down
No-one seems settled in this restless, dynamic world where night visions are evoked in pulsing, body warping choreography. Take a wild headfirst dive into the theatre of dreams.
Commissioned by Brighton Festival, on tour in Europe inc The Lowry October 24-25 October 2025
Review
There’s a kind of opacity to the thundering new work by Brighton Festival favourites Hofesh Shechter Company; a sense of seeing and not seeing, much like trying to catch a dream. No-one seems settled in this restless, dynamic world where night visions are evoked in pulsing, body warping choreography.
Curtains swept aside slice the stage into fragments revealing short, vivid scenes. Repeated images of battle, of flight and romance play out in emotionally charged tableaux by dancers in costume designer’s Osnat Kelner’s mix of street and club wear. It’s a hazy, muted colour world as if glimpsed through sleepy eyes.
Shechter’s vision is cinematic. Whilst there are definite echoes of David Lynch in moments of eery dislocation, breathy vocals and lilting 1930’s song, the overall effect is more Ridley Scott blockbuster. Tom Visser’s characterful lighting has elements of both, shifting from silvery gloom to full wallop brights as the action builds.
The stop-start nature of scenes, backed by Shechter’s score at seat-shaking volume, tips into nightmare. So an invitation to suddenly get up and dance is welcome, if somewhat jarring. Where are we now? Awake or asleep – who’s dream is this?
Always a master of the grand, ensemble ending, Shechter’s propelling finale allows the company to express their joy in movement, perhaps free of dread and dreams, backed by a red-suited trio and criss-crossing the stage in a riot of complex syncopation. Theatre of Dreams’ macho, full throttle approach may not match your subconscious experience – I’m usually just about to miss a train – but the wild response of the packed Dome audience suggests it’s a dream they’ll not forget.
