Looking Forward to

Looking Forward to MADDADDAM & Victoria

The company is continuing to invest in the previously announced commissions of Wayne McGregor’s MADDADDAM and Cathy Marston’s Victoria in order to bring them to the Four Seasons Centre stage. Thank you for being a part of The National Ballet of Canada’s development of these lustrous productions of fresh story ballets with our international collaborators. These productions will truly elevate the company’s standing on the world stage as a hub of unparalleled excellence and excitement in ballet. We look forward to opportunities to share the process of bringing these productions to life.

MADDADDAM is a collaboration of international significance, with Wayne McGregor, the multi-award-winning choreographer of Chroma and Genus, joining forces with one of the world’s greatest living writers, Margaret Atwood, to create a brand new full-length work, a co-production with The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Ballet in London. This new work is based on the MADDADDAM trilogy of books by Atwood which includes, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and MADDADDAM. To translate the books to the stage, McGregor has reassembled the creative team behind his landmark 2015 ballet Woolf Works, inspired by the work of Virginia Woolf, including influential composer Max Richter, who recently created the soundtrack for the 2019 film Ad Astra. Also joining him again are lighting designer Lucy Carter, design firm We Not I, film artist Ravi Deepres and dramaturg Uzma Hameed.

As the basis of the production, Wayne McGregor is drawing on the themes of genetic manipulation, historical conceptualizations of the future of humanity and the push and pull between Canada’s urban and rural environments. McGregor and his design team have been inspired by the geometry of the city of Toronto, as well as exaggerated symbols of genetic reproduction such as the giant egg-like shapes and domes of Canada’s Expo ‘67 Man and His World exhibits.

Margaret Atwood. Photo by George Whiteside. Wayne McGregor. Photo by Johan Hallberg-Campbell.

Consulting closely with the UK design team, The National Ballet of Canada’s Production staff have been employing their ingenuity to create the world of MADDADDAM as conceived by McGregor. The scenic design mirrors the trilogy in that there will be three very separate major designs for the stage that will require very specific stage rigging, which is unlike other productions. The specificity of the Toronto cityscape and the natural landscape will be brought to the stage through otherworldly large-scale three-dimensional sculpture and video design. Graphic and satellite maps of the city of Toronto as well as video documentation of Ontario’s natural environment are being used as the basis for these visualizations.

The concept is for set pieces to be designed to morph between the representational and the abstract through lighting, movement and video projections. The production and design teams are working to engineer giant set pieces that move in unexpected ways, revealing layers of the story, as well as geometric pieces that can be manipulated by the dancers. The manipulation of elements of such a large scale will require thoughtful coordination and collaborative time between the choreographer, production team, designers and dancers in order to realize this fantastical ballet.

Cathy Marston’s Victoria turns the spotlight on a towering figure from Britain’s monarchical past, Queen Victoria, with fresh choreographic language from a rising star in contemporary narrative ballet. A gifted storyteller with a passion for literature, Marston has created more than 50 dance works steeped in history, biography and other narrative forms, many of them focused on strong female characters. Victoria, a co-production with Northern Ballet, drew praise at its 2019 world premiere in Leeds and on tour across the United Kingdom including performances at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London. When the National Ballet performs Victoria, it will be the first time the ballet is performed in North America. Marston co-wrote the scenario for Victoria with Uzma Hameed, an accomplished writer, director and dramaturg for theatre and dance. Victoria features a soaring set design from Steffen Aarfing and an original, commissioned score from composer and pianist Philip Feeney.