Nobodaddy, Teaċ Daṁsa, Dublin Theatre Festival review - supernatural song and dance odyssey

Nobodaddy, taking its title from Blake’s violent dark-god “Father of Jealousy”, is much more than a dance piece, and Michael Keegan-Dolan, whose company was formerly known as Fabulous Beast, is more than just a choreographer, with unique takes on the total work of art already to his credit.

This is no exception, and may mark a new zenith. There's material enough for more than one happening. Typically, Keegan-Dolan weaves around an individual loss more Blake poems, the Irish rebellion of 1798, folk-based songs of exile in collaboration with the wonderful Sam Amidon, and reflections on the Miami Showband massacre which shook Northern Ireland in 1975. It’s a long, through-composed evening, but the journey is spellbinding.

We start with an older woman motionless on the floor, two hospital functionaries spitting and wiping away the spit from the floor around her, another man – presumably her son – pleading with them to help him lift her. Bureaucracy forbids, and turns hostile. She rises, dons a red show suit, takes a microphone and sings “All Kinds of Everything“ in weird duet with a euphonium player. It’s reprised, crazy-style, towards the end of the performance, but between the two versions, Keegan-Dolan’s company of singers, dancers (who also sing, in affecting harmony) and instrumentalists run the gamut of songs and dances of death, separation and loss. The surprises come thick and fast. Dutch drummer Jimmi Hueting gives us a robust, lacerating version of “The Minstrel Boy”; the two violinists and cellist cap their wistful folkstyle with equally poignant singing; sporadic dancing which includes rituals with poured milk and smeared butter (don’t ask why, it works, beginning of that number pictured above) eventually shapes up into a long and frenetic company routine which is both exhilarating and disturbing; an edge is always there even to Keegan-Dolan’s showier sequences. Poems include the crucial "In Memoriam: The Miami Showband - Massacred 31 July 1975" by Paul Durcen, which led Keegan-Dolan to include this strand about musicians who don't take sides, and a litany of furious Blake.

Deafening electronics and raucous ensemble numbers are offset by quiet but always intense live music. We think we’re reaching a conclusion when Amidon transfixes us with his stillness in “Prodigal Son“ as the company step, one by one, into the coffin-like crate where he’s at the centre. You expect the crate to be wheeled back into darkness, and an end to it, but even more extraordinary is yet to come: possibly the most powerful treatment of a multi-verse folk ballad I’ve ever heard in "Lily-O", mounting in intensity. Excerpts from Blake's Auguries of Innocence keep the anger stoked (pictured below), and the company is lost to sight as bubbles from two machines shower upon us. It's the total experience, with equally vital work from Adam Silverman (lighting), Doey Lüthi (costumes) and Jelle Roozenburg (extra sound design/electronics). Curiously, it related to the opening earlier yesterday evening of an exhibition at the Hugh Lane Gallery five minutes down the road from the Belvedere Jesuit College's O'Reilly Theatre where Nobodaddy takes place. Artist Brian Maguire's engagement with human rights around the world has yielded a series of large, magnificent and disturbing canvasses of destruction. We even had the musical connection here too, with Christy Moore as guest speaker. It's all happening north of the Liffey.

• Nobodaddy at the O'Reilly Theatre, Belvedere College until 5 October; sold out and waitlist closed
• Full programme of the Dublin Theatre Festival
• More dance reviews on theartsdesk