24 May 2019. Four Quartets at the Barbican

This was a fascinating hour and a half - a mixture of:

• dance by an ensemble under New York choreographer Pam Tanowitz
• the narration by Kathleen Chalfont of TS Eliot's poem
• music by Kaija Saariaho
• a set and lighting designed by Clifton Taylor and featuring paintings by Brice Marden 

All these worked together brilliantly while having their independent existences. It was less dancing to the poem and music as dancing with them.

The poem itself is hard to fathom and I tended to use the narration as music rather than intellectually processing its meaning - tuning in and out while focusing on the dancers.

An interesting discussion afterwards cast some light on Tanowitz's approach to the work that included pilgrimages to the locations referenced in Eliot's poem. It made me keen to try and gain a greater insight on the poem's meaning.

So, I came down on the side of the critics who found this a really engaging event. However, it was also somewhat soporific and the person next to me kept nodding off.