“The full cast of performers is superb, peeling in and out of character’s skins, between voice, movement and singing. Dance is used to complete meanings, to explode emotions, to carry the narrative forward with heartbreaking empathy.”

*****

“It is clear from Ruination that Duke is nothing if not an iconoclast. His re-telling of Eurypides’ classic tale not only switches the events around but also adds a fresh and compelling viewpoint.”

*****

“It’s the Christmas present you never knew you needed.”

*****

Paradise Lost is a work that leaves you stunned. It rattles along at a reckless pace, seeming to have no direction then hits the target with blinding accuracy. Afifi manages to slip betwixt and between the characters, juggling the humour and the deadly serious with great dexterity in a performance that, despite its low-key wrapping, is a tour de force.

There’s much to think about in this intense and intriguing performance.

****

“The entire work is clearly stamped with Duke’s innovative and holistic approach to performance particularly in the way he collides the mundane with the magnificent. The judicious musical choices, the seamless technical wizadry, the audacious cocktail of groundling humour, bathos and sudden skull-freezing drama plus the raw energy of the dancers…an impressionistic work of steadily accumulating power…”

****

“The passages of dance, however, which punctuate the piece between spoken scenes, are the exact opposite of this emotional restriction – whereas their words conceal, their bodies reveal. Lost Dog – led by choreographer Ben Duke – have a physical language that sits somewhere between total balletic gracefulness and the movements happening in an indie sleaze mosh pit. When not falling poetically into each other’s arms, the dancers ricochet and shake like teenagers having an existential crisis in the dark.” ****

“Ben Duke directs a triumphant theatre-dance interpretation of the Dickens classic that offsets complexity with out-loud laughs” ****

It's not often you're doubled over with laughter and wiping away tears of sadness during the same show. Given the components that come together in Juliet & Romeo, however, it's no surprise. *****

‘Duke’s handling of this material is beautifully assured. His writing is fast, inventive and smart; the interleaving of movement, text and music (mostly a selection of pop classics) is expertly paced.’

Comic awkwardness tipping into vulnerable emotion is a hallmark of Ben Duke’s work. ****