Love, Lies and Literature – The Joffrey Ballet's ‘Atonement’

Marc Vitali, WTTW Chicago

October 17, 2024

How does one turn a novel (and Oscar-winning film) into a ballet?

Joffrey Ballet’s U.S. premiere of “Atonement” tells the impassioned story of a lie that alters the course of love and history.

Ian McEwan’s 2001 source novel became a film in 2007 starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy and Vanessa Redgrave. The movie also featured the breakthrough role for Saoirse Ronan as a 13-year-old aspiring novelist.

In the new interpretation, the aspiring writer is now a celebrated choreographer.

Cathy Marston, the acclaimed British choreographer behind “Atonement,” is best known for narrative ballets. Previously, she created Joffrey Ballet’s “Jane Eyre” and “Of Mice and Men.”

WTTW News spoke with Marston via telephone from Switzerland where she is artistic director of Ballett Zürich, which co-produced “Atonement” with Joffrey.

WTTW News: Many people draw or take photographs or play an instrument. Not many people choreograph. What does it take to do what you do?

Cathy Marston: That’s a hard question, and no one’s ever asked me that before! Well, it involves obviously having a deep knowledge of dance and how the body works, but much more than that you need to have ideas of what you want to express with bodies. For me, that often comes back to storytelling. Many choreographers work in a kind of abstract way, using bodies in space as I suppose some artists would use paint on a canvas. For me, it’s about finding ways to tell stories and to tell the parts that words often don’t achieve so well.

What do you seek when you’re considering new material?

Marston: When I’m looking for a new subject I’m often reading books and biographies, and it’s the bits between the lines that interest me, the relationships, the emotional worlds, and particular characters who I feel I could draw vividly in movement, or in amplified movement, because we all move every day, so it’s finding form to that movement.

Is that why you decided to create a dance from Ian McEwan’s “Atonement?”

Marston: I wanted to make this ballet for 20 years. Ian McEwan published it in 2001, and I’m a big fan so I bought it and it immediately grabbed me. I had the feeling that these characters and this plot would translate into movement. It’s so strong with intense emotions – love, loss, regret, anger, jealousy – all of the things that dance speaks about best.

The other thing that attracted me is that there are moments which are intimate and then there are sweeping scenes. The story plays against the backdrop of the Second World War, so you have scenes of soldiers, nurses and civilians that really lend itself to a ballet company where you want large scenes and emotions conveyed through waves of people, and then you want it to reduce and just see two or three people intimately together. This story offers all of that.

Did you start to choreograph at an early age?

Marston: I wanted to be a choreographer for as long as I remember. When I was young I was always making up dances. My parents were English teachers, so theater and books were important to me and also somehow telling those stories with my body.

When I went to the Royal Ballet School at age 16 you could choose to choreograph. You didn’t have to because you were there primarily as a performer, but I wanted to have a go at choreography and I absolutely loved it. For example, I loved if things would go wrong in class. If you’d be trying to do a turn and you’d sort of fall out, I’d always see something interesting in that mistake. Or if you’re doing a lift I’d always imagine how that could be extended in an alternative way. So I was 16 when I got the bug. Most people start choreographing toward the end of their dance career, and I count myself lucky for starting early because it can be very daunting to begin to put yourself out there like that, and I honestly began before I ever worried about it.

You are the artistic director of the Ballett Zürich, and this is a co-production between that company and the Joffrey. How did that work?

Marston: We made it as a co-production because I’ve got such a good, ongoing relationship with Joffrey Ballet. In the summer of ’23 I had a couple of weeks in Chicago creating scenes and doing movement research on the characters, and then because I’m the director of Ballett Zürich here in Switzerland, I took those scenes back here and created the rest of the ballet, and we premiered it in Zürich in April.

We also had the rehearsal director from Joffrey come for six weeks when I was making it here in Zürich. So he was really familiar and able to teach the missing scenes back in Chicago. It’s a really special collaboration between two companies.

And there’s original music from composer Laura Rossi. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us about “Atonement?”

Marston: It’s a visual feast. We worked with Michael Levine, who’s one of the best set designers in the world, and he’s created a stunning set and it looks gorgeous in the Lyric, and the costumes are by Bregje Van Balen.

Most people who’ve seen the film remember a specific green dress, which is drop-dead gorgeous. We’ve adapted it, but it’s not identical. In general, the period spans from the mid-1930s through the 40s and then there’s a later epilogue, but that period of the 30s and 40s is just so gorgeous for dance costumes because you get these stunning silk dresses. Visually, it’s something to really like forward to.

Now that you’ve spent a lot of time in Chicago, what’s your favorite part?

Marston: I love walking along the Riverwalk and along the lakefront, and the architecture is just incredible. I just love the city.

Joffrey Ballet’s “Atonement” runs Oct.17-27 at Lyric Opera House.