Merlin [Northern Ballet] – Review – Sheffield Lyceum

By Clare Jenkins, November 2025

All that glitters may not be gold, but choreographer Drew McOnie’s 2021 production about the early life of an Arthurian legend certainly cast its glow over a dark and rainy November night.

It’s not just Colin Richmond’s stunning gilt sets – often resembling scenes from an ancient Egyptian wall painting – that sparkle. Nor the dancers poised like figures among the hieroglyphs, arms carving geometric shapes, draped either in bronze tunics or shimmering in sea-blue chiffon. It’s also there throughout Northern Ballet’s trademark agility, fluidity and superb storytelling. (Though it helps to read the synopsis and character sketches first, to make full sense of the action).

“Impressive”

From the moment the gauzy curtain rises to reveal a huge spinning gold ring through which Helios the Sun God (a gleaming George Liang) appears to woo The Lady of the Lake (Heather Lehan), the audience is drawn into a pre-Camelot world of warring kingdoms, good vs evil, thwarted love and fiery-eyed, smoke-breathing dragons.

Merlin – conceived by the two celestial beings – falls to earth as a glowing orb of light, where he transforms into a baby and is found by the Blacksmith (Amber Lewis, as engagingly fluent and expressive here as she was last year as Jane Eyre). In an impressive piece of theatre, the swaddled baby suddenly becomes a truculent teenager, bored with spending his days forging metal, but a misfit in the Solar Kingdom’s army – despite the gift of a sword, Excalibur.

“Endearing”

As befits a young man who’s spent his days in a hot, grimy, smoky workshop, Kevin Poeung is magnetic in the title role. His face reflects every emotion – disappointment and determination, loneliness and longing, pain and pleasure – as he grows from callow youth to mature sorcerer. His movements are mesmerising, his energy extraordinary. Thanks to both his performance and Rachael Canning’s puppetry (which includes two snarling dogs), the scenes involving him and the endearing dragon (skilfully manipulated by Albert Gonzalez Orts) are both touching and humorous. As, indeed, are the scenes between him and his adoptive mother, combining both tenderness and irritation.

With or without her stunningly designed crow’s wings, Saeka Shirai makes a seductively scheming Morgan le Fae, here depicted as an army general with her eye both on Merlin’s power and on Prince Uther (Archie Sherman), heir to the Solar kingdom of King Vortigern (Antoni Cañellas Artigues). But Uther is in love with Princess Ygraine (Rachael Gillespie, delightful both in diaphanous chiffon and when bathing in stardust), from the rival Kingdon of the Tides.

“Atmospheric”

Thanks to Chris Fisher’s expertise in illusions and visual effects, there are some truly enchanting moments: when stars and water lilies, for instance, appear in dancers’ hands, or when the strikingly metallic oak tree glows red or green. And the scenes where the Lady of the Lake appears to be swimming above our hero’s head, diving underwater like a mermaid, then rising above it, are a tribute to the ensemble’s collaboration.

Grant Olding’s almost cinematic score – played here on a recording rather than live – guides us through the narrative (sometimes a tad too literally), from rousingly warlike trumpets and drum rolls to gentler strings for the lighter moments. Anna Watson’s atmospheric lighting, meanwhile, cleverly contrasts the Solar kingdom’s gold with the Tide’s watery blues.
Magic.

Northern Ballet Theatre’s ‘Merlin’ is at the Sheffield Lyceum Theatre until Saturday: sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
images: Tristram Kenton

Clare Jenkins( Writer )

Clare’s dream is to live in a hotel suite, safe from the bother of boiler breakdowns and crashing computers. Thanks to her husband Stephen McClarence’s work as a national newspaper travel writer, she’s been lucky enough to stay at hotels across the UK, India and many other countries – and has loved (nearly) every minute. As a journalist herself, she was a regular contributor to Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour for over 20 years and has made features and documentaries for Radios 3 and 4. She’s also a former theatre reviewer for The Stage magazine and, with her husband, co-author of Teatime at Peggy’s: A Glimpse of Anglo-India.

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