Pepperland

Almost two years after premiering at The Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool, Mark Morris Dance Group's Beatles inspired dance fantasia, Pepperland, arrived this week at the Theatre Royal, Norwich.
 
'Put on a Beatles tribute show at your peril', it is said. There is no guarantee how the audiences, who know and cherish every Beatles song, will react to any tinkering with the sound of the Fab Four's  original recordings, even for a dance score. Yet Morris' trump card is composer, and member of avant-garde jazz trio The Bad Plus, Ethan Iverson. He made the crucial call in picking the tracks that could be cajoled into danceable form, then created his own Pepper-inspired divertissements to produce a fluid and cohesive musical suite for Morris to work his magic upon with typical flair and imagination. The resultant 60 minute show is a kaleidoscopic and psychedelic delight from start to end.
 
Pepperland begins, as it finishes, with an embracing couple surrounded by a tight swirl of bodies. The journey is a search for friendship and love, and the choreography explores this in a variety of tempos and rhythms. As we progress through With A Little Help From My Friends and When I'm Sixty-Four individuals form into couples, groups and finally into an entire chorus line of brightly coloured bodies moving with rainbow conviviality. It is a joy to watch, though complicated time signatures can render it frustratingly difficult to tap along to.
 
There is a strong sense of side-to-side action throughout. Constantly changing hues of rich pastel lighting projected onto a simple backdrop mean that dance moves frequently assume an elegant two-dimensionality, not unlike cartoon animations from 'Yellow Submarine'. On the stage shiny metallised foil shapes becomes both underwater rockery and mountain peaks as dancers appear to 'swim' or 'fly' across the stage. There is a gaiety and lightness of touch to the dancers' movement that produces a mood of all-embracing optimism.
 
But it is the finesse with which Everson inserts his Adagio, Allegro and Scherzo pieces into the re-imagined Beatles' material that creates genuine magic, and should win over the most cynical of Beatles fanatics. Indeed, all of the additional music, particularly the jazz and blues diversions, allow for a pertinacious flow to the dance moves, driven along by saxophone, trombone, harpsichord and percussion from the band; and the retro-electronic ethereality of  Rob Schwimmer's theremin playing and a rich vocal delivery from baritone Clinton Curtis. This is the canvas upon which the brightly dressed dancers successfully and vividly bring the 1960's Carnaby Street mod scene to life. Their synchronised moves are both 'groovy' and vibrant, with flourishes of individuality and gestures that serve as interpretive reference points to both music and lyrics.
 
With Pepperland, Mark Morris Dance Group takes a contemporary snapshot, but with a backward glance, and creates A Day in The Life that chimes with almost every one of us. We are presented with a joyous album of sound and imagery, bursting with affection and nostalgia, a retrospective souvenir-in-waiting ready for when we are sixty four.