an Accident/a life; Northern Ballet: Romeo & Juliet

Norwich Theatre Royal; Sadler’s Well, London
Marc Brew’s recreation, choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, of the crash that left him paraplegic is an exhilarating riposte to fate. And a slightly dated classic still looks the part

Marc Brew was just beginning his career as a ballet dancer when a head-on car accident left him paraplegic at the age of 20. That is the starting point for an astonishing, moving collaboration between him and the choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui that creates an almost phantasmagorical picture of the event that changed his life.

Presented as part of the Norwich and Norfolk festival, an Accident/a Life begins with Brew lying limp in front of a car, headlights blazing. On screens either side, his words are printed alongside images that both set the scene and emphasise the meaning of this life-changing event and its consequences. As he crawls, crablike across the stage, the car is hoisted high into the air, where it remains, physically and metaphorically hanging over the action like a bad dream.