Maud Le Pladec creates a striking interpretation of Shubert’s Unfinished Symphony, with the help of a stellar group of creatives and performers

Acclaimed choreographer Maud Le Pladec returns to London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre with her ambitious new piece, Twenty-Seven Perspectives. Inspired by Rémy Zaugg’s 27 esquisses, Le Pladec aims to deconstruct Shubert’s famous “Unfinished” Symphony, creating a piece which is, as she herself describes it, both formal and abstract. Her vision is brought to life by 10 dancers from intentionally divergent backgrounds.

The performance starts with a more ensemble-based choreography that follows musical arrangements closer to Schubert’s original composition and “disintegrates” into a more fragmented performance with only occasional moments of synchronicity. 

Pete Harden’s masterful sound design adds the necessary punctuation to the piece by alternating between classical legato and more electronic staccato phrases, as well as slower and faster tempos. The sparse but much needed moments of complete silence speak louder than the biggest crescendos and the dancers are even more captivating in the absence of any accompaniment, almost making you wonder whether they can still hear the music. The lighting design by Nicolas Marc adds an extra dimension to the piece, taking us from more structured and distant to more personal and dream-like sequences. 

All 10 performers tackle Le Pladec’s inspired choreography with grace and unparalleled articulation in movement, to the point where, were it not for their perfectly synchronised moves, one would forget that the piece was in fact choreographed. More often than not, one can almost visualise Shubert’s score, as each dancer’s moves almost become a living representation of each note on the pentagram. 

At some point within the show, each of the performers has their own moment where, for a few minutes, they become the main focus of the choreography. It is truly astounding to witness how none of them approach that moment with any sense of inflated ego, which is often the case with performers who are given a fleeting moment in the spotlight. Instead, they all exist as equals, like a living organism with different parts, all of which have different functions, structure, and appearance, but work in perfect harmony to create a living, breathing entity.