an Accident / a Life, Marc Brew / Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
an Accident a Life by Marc Brew and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui ©Filip Van Roe
Bang!
A body falls from the ceiling, slamming to the floor and sending panic through my bones.
The mannequin lies, facedown, in a boilersuit in front of a car suspended from the ceiling. If you are sensitive to jump-scares like me, I am relieved to report that that’s as bad as Marc Brew’s An Accident / A Life got.
The work (more autobiographical theatre than dance piece) documents Brew’s car accident as a twenty-year-old Australian dancer in South Africa and his recovery in hospital as he comes to terms with his life changing diagnosis of paralysation. Unable to move his legs without assistance, he (with fellow choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui) has choreographed a work which sees him move seamlessly across the stage without the assistance of a wheelchair until the last five minutes. His arms pull him across the stage, a sofa, and through the seats of the car, and wrap his legs around his neck and across themselves.
an Accident a Life by Marc Brew and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui ©Filip Van Roe
To add dimension, camera work is used throughout this monologue, the video displayed with subtitles on two vertical screens on either side of the stage, encasing the action. Held by himself and his assistants, the camera gets up close and personal with Brew, adding claustrophobic intensity to the barrage of emotions he must have experienced during this time of his life. Sometimes the video turned or distorted to add additional movement to Brew’s own. His dance partner if you like.
It was expertly produced, with seamless set and outfit changes, and comedic and ironic uses of music to lighten dark scenes. Sofa became coffin became aeroplane ceiling (he flew home on a stretcher laid across multiple seats — a claustrophobic’s nightmare), while the car became the magnet board he communicated with in early recovery; just two genius reuses of set pieces (the same can’t be said for the brilliant clapperboard gag which was inexplicably abandoned 30 minutes in). Meanwhile, Alexandre Dai Castaing’s soundtrack was eerie and creepy, adding to the work’s intensity.
an Accident a Life by Marc Brew and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui ©Filip Van Roe
And yet it could have gone deeper. In between spoken-word, there were moments of dance which struggled to reflect the emotion of the moment we had just experienced. Where was the loss, the longing, the regret, the complexity of emotions that can only emerge through the trauma of being a lone survivor? The text told us the facts, the dance should have provided the emotional hit to complete our immersion in this absorbing tale.
His solo in his wheelchair at the end got the closest to this. His emotions were evident as he caressed his legs in mourning and reached up in a flurry, his movements repeated back a hundred times behind him on screen. It was the moment I felt I understood his experience the most. I just wish there had been more of it.
★★★★
an Accident / a Life, Marc Brew / Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui
Sadler’s Wells East, London / 25 September 2025
Press ticket
Until 27 September 2025
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