BalletBoyz – England on Fire review: big ambitions but no burning message

BalletBoyz bite off more than they can chew in this mudded meditation on national identity

‘England on Fire’ is a riff on a book by Stephen Ellcock and Mat Osman (Thomas Bradshaw)

In England on Fire, the BalletBoyz bite off more than they can chew. It’s a big, state-of-the-nation staging, featuring more than 40 artists, with multiple threads and themes. It aims for a rebellious jumble of voices and ideas, but sinks into muddle.

BalletBoyz directors Michael Nunn and William Trevitt are known for big collaborations, whether that’s early successes with choreographer Russell Maliphant and ballerina Sylvie Guillem, or more recent reinventions of their company.

For England on Fire, they riff off the book by Stephen Ellcock and Mat Osman, which brought together images and text of folklore, protest, and visionary traditions. The stage work has multiple choreographers and composers, arranged as chapters. Between scenes, Andrew Ellis’s lighting spills patterns out across the auditorium walls. A voiceover, unfortunately muffled on opening night, speaks a linking text: imagined cities, labyrinths, weeds.