British dance theatre company, Lost Dog, is delighted to be returning to Theaterfestival Boulevard with RUINATION – their award-winning reimagining of Medea.  In this version, directed by Lost Dog Artistic Director Ben Duke, Medea is on trial in the Underworld for alleged crimes against her family. The charges against her have been brought by her ex-husband and former hero, Jason. It seems unlikely she will get a fair hearing in Hades’ Kangaroo court.  Melding dance, comedy, theatre, and live music this is a reimagining of one of the most enduring and extreme stories of family dysfunction.

The cast 6 dancers -  MIGUEL ALTUNAGA (Rambert, Akram Kahn), National Dance Award nominee JD BROUSSÉ, MAYA CARROLL (National Dance Company fo Wales), LIAM FRANCIS (Zoonation, Rambert), National Dance Award winner HANNAH SHEPHERD, AISHWARYA RAUT (Rambert, Gothenburg Dance Company) – are joined on stage by 3 live musicians – SHEREE DUBOIS, KEITH PUN and YSHANI PERINPANAYAGAM who perform an eclectic soundtrack that includes works by Purcell, George Harrison and Radiohead.

RUINATION, is co-produced by Lost Dog and the Royal Ballet and premiered at the Royal Opera House in London on 5 December 2022 and was presented at the 18th Venice Dance Biennale in 2024.

Ruination has received critical acclaim in the UK, Italy and France:

★★★★★ “It’s a rare treat to see a show that tickles your funnybone, messes with your head, breaks your heart then comes back to haunt your dreams. But Lost Dog’s fresh take on the myth of Medea is the real deal: a potent brew of dance, drama, music and glorious stage-scapes, with a GSOH to boot.” Time Out London

★★★★★ “You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be impressed at the cleverness of it all, and you might think differently about murderous Medea.” The Guardian

★★★★★ “Medea’s sense of injustice leaks out across millennia.  Jason’s betrayal – delivered in a scene of hurtling eroticism – is like a kick in the chest.  Duke disassembles existing stories and remakes them in his own style.  He domesticates myth and skirmishes with the mundane before rising to operatic heights of expression through movement, language, sound and vision” The Stage

★★★★ “With his company Lost Dog, Duke has a gift for the flipside of stories. As in his award-winning, one-man Paradise Lost, he looks for the cracks in a narrative, levering them open to find comedy and desperate loss” The Independent

• Thursday 6 August 20.00h in Theater aan de Parade. 
• Friday 7 August 20.30h in Theater aan de Parade.

About Lost Dog

Lost Dog was formed in 2004 by Ben Duke and Raquel Meseguer Zafe to create work where dance is framed by stories and characters.  In July 2026 they will premiere their new show – The Last Hamlet – at the Festival d’Avignon in France.  Other recent works include Ruination, A Tale of Two Cities, Paradise Lost (lies unopened beside me) and Juliet & Romeo which has been performed more than 170 times in 8 countries and translated into 6 different languages. In 2022 Lost Dog won the National Dance Award for Best Mid-Scale Company.
 

About Ben Duke – Artistic Director

Ben is Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Lost Dog.  Trained at Guildford School of Acting, London Contemporary Dance School and with a first-class degree in English Literature from Newcastle University, he attempts to reconcile these three subjects in his work.  Alongside his work for Lost Dog he also creates work for other companies including Rambert, Scottish Dance Theatre, Phoenix Dance Theatre and Barrowland Ballet.