Sharif Afifi talks about his role as a dancer in Lost Dog’s ‘epic yet vulnerable’ Paradise Lost
Ben Duke’s Lost Dog dance theatre company (which celebrated its 20th anniversary last year) is bringing back the one-man show Paradise Lost (which lies unopened beside me), which starred Duke himself on its first outing.
It returns to Battersea Arts Centre (BAC) where it began life, having been co-commissioned by The Place and BAC. A five-star review by the Independent stated, “It’s an enchanting, very funny show, swooping from the epic to the vulnerable.”
This time around, Sharif Afifi takes over from Duke in the 70-minute show. Afifi’s considerable theatre credits include The Band’s Visit (Donmar Warehouse) which earned him a 2023 Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical, Freddie Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady at the London Coliseum in 2022, and Hadestown at the National Theatre in 2018. Paradise Lost with Afifi was seen at London’s artsdepot last October, and after two days at Chichester’s Minerva Theatre (6-7 February), it comes to London’s Battersea Arts Centre for a long run from 18 March until 5 April 2025.
Here’s what Sharif Afifi told us about his role…
Who do you play in Paradise Lost?
He is a man caught between fatherhood and his need to create and be an artist and so decides to make a one man show based on Milton’s Paradise Lost. He may not have fully thought it through though…
The piece combines dance choreography with text and movement – was that a challenge?
I was apprehensive at first because I really did think it would be hard to pull off whilst keeping it honest and unpretentious. But it ended up feeling like the most natural thing in the world.
My character is a dancer – that idea liberated me and allowed me to surrender to the freedom it gives me in the show to move out of text into something more expressive.
You use your hands very expressively throughout.
The show is about creation and the most obvious tool we have for physically engaging in this is our hands. I’ve realised this more and more as I’ve performed the show, and my hands have become their own entity in a way! It is fun finding new ways to play with them, especially in the movement language of the show.
How do you gauge the audience atmosphere?
I’ve become pretty good at knowing what energy the audience may bring after the first 5 minutes of the show, but they have also gone on to surprise me. It’s humbling to be reminded in real time that when you step on stage to tell people a story, it’s your job to carry them through regardless of how they are responding. They don’t owe you anything and you never really know what people are taking away from what they are seeing. It’s a personal journey. So I’m trying more and more to give up any analysis of the audience response. Every now and then ego comes back to play.
What do you love most about performing this complex piece?
The show goes on an unexpected journey. It is like nothing I’ve been a part of before. I love how many different performance mediums it moves through and how it surprises the audience. It’s exhilarating doing this in such a stripped back way.
So what do you think audiences love most about it?
I think the show is really relatable and as it unfolds and it becomes a bit clearer what is being explored, I think the audiences enjoy seeing themselves in this man.
And just for fun… 5 essential things you pack when on tour.
[He laughs] Lip balm! Headphones. A little book of Sufi poetry. My favourite coffee cup (that I always forget to use)… and my copy of Paradise Lost!
Graham Spicer, aka ‘Gramilano’, is a writer, director and photographer based in Milan. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy. His articles have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the Danza in Italia column for Dancing Times magazine. Graham was the historical advisor on Codice Carla, the 2023 documentary on Italian ballerina Carla Fracci.
Graham also works as a dance photographer, and his photos have appeared in many books, theatre programmes, and magazines, including Dancing Times, Dance Spirit and Ballet2000, as well as all the major Italian newspapers.
He is a member of the Dance Section of The Critics’ Circle.
