RAMBERT make a welcome return to Bath as Death Trap brings together two works by Ben Duke in one thrilling dance performance

World renowned Rambert return to Bath for the first time since 2019 when they present Death Trap, a performance featuring two sensational dances created by Olivier Award nominee choreographer Ben Duke, appearing at the Theatre Royal from Thursday 2= to Saturday 4 November. Bringing together Goat and Cerberus, Death Trap continues Rambert’s focus on storytelling and characters and features awe inspiring performances by Rambert’s diverse company of seventeen dancers, with live music by an on-stage band.

Infused with Ben Duke’s irresistible, stylish and accessible sense of dance theatre, Death Trap is darkly funny and packed with originality. In Cerberus, audiences enter a world where dance is literally a matter of life or death. An ingenious adaptation of the Greek tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, it is a bittersweet musing on myth and mortality, complete with funeral couture. Goat is inspired by the spirit of Nina Simone, with iconic songs including Feelings, Feeling Good and Ain’t Got No / I Got, Life.

Both pieces are recreated for this tour by Ben Duke and Rambert dancers Adél Bálint, Angélique Blasco, Simone Damberg Würtz, Max Day, Hannah Hernandez, Cali Hollister, Conor Kerrigan, Joseph Kudra, Naya Lovell, Musa Motha, Aishwarya Raut, Antonello Sangirardi, Alex Soulliere, Dylan Tedaldi, Jonathan Wade, Archie White and Seren Williams.

After opening at York’s Theatre Royal in October, Death Trap, performed by Rambert, tours to Bath’s Theatre Royal and London’s Sadler’s Wells in November 2023, before going back on the road in the Spring of 2024, touring to a total of 10 theatres including a visit to Paris’ Théâtre de la Ville.

Benoit Swan Pouffer, Artistic Director of Rambert said:

“We’re very happy to welcome Ben Duke back in our studios to revisit Goat and Cerberus together. Our dancers come from varied backgrounds, bringing with them a breadth of skills shaped by different experiences, and Ben’s unique sense of theatre allows them to explore characterisation through storytelling in their individual and collective performance.”

Choreographer Ben Duke said:

“I first worked with Rambert in 2017 and while I, and the company, have changed a lot since then, I feel like this history gives me a sense of partnership. The work I make is always inspired by and made with the performers and it is a privilege to find myself in a room with these exceptional artists. Their diversity of background means that they bring such a richness of experience into the space, and it is their talent and generosity that really make this work.”

Ben Duke is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Lost Dog. His work explores the overlap and transition between dance and theatre. In 2022 Lost Dog won the National Dance Award for

best mid-scale company and their Christmas co-production with the Royal Opera House, Ruination, was awarded Best Modern Choreography. Ben’s other work for Lost Dog includes Juliet and Romeo and Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) both of which toured to the Ustinov Studio at the Theatre Royal Bath in 2021, as well as A Tale of Two Cities, and the Place Prize winning It Needs Horses.  

As a director and choreographer, Ben’s work for other companies includes Goat and Cerberus for Rambert. Cerberus was nominated for Best Modern Choreography in the 2022 National Dance Awards and Goat was nominated for an Olivier Award in the Best New Dance Production category in 2018. Goat by Ben Duke has previously appeared at the Theatre Royal Bath as part of Rambert’s 2017 autumn tour, following its premiere a month earlier in Edinburgh.