The piece is split into three acts, all linked to themes that come with the word extinction. It’s a loaded, heavy word, and there is certainly no shying away from the burden of that weight. The first act is perhaps the most affecting. “Figures in Extinction [1.0],” which made an impact in its Sadler’s Wells run in 2023 as part of a mixed bill, looks at extinction in its most recognised form: the extinction of nature. An army of plainly dressed dancers reanimate various species of plants and animals and the occasional glacier or lake. Perhaps the most affecting is the critically endangered Asiatic Cheetah. Its puppeteered skeleton prowls about the stage in near silence, staring at us with a feline insouciance before collapsing back into a pile of bones. As each animal leaves us we feel a sort of gut punch, this danced séance is the closest thing we may ever have to seeing these creatures walk this earth again.  

This is, however, not just a work of dance, but a collaborative work of dance and theatre. McBurney’s contributions are no less impactful. His voiceover, which lists out the extinct like the death notices of a local paper, mounts in agitation. The act ends with a young girl’s voice enquiring about the fate of the extinct passenger pigeon, “Did it go away? Will they come back?” Her voice again opens the second act, “Figures in Extinction [2.0],” now focusing on a group of idle office workers sat in chairs, “why aren’t they moving?” While the first act was led mostly by Pite, McBurney takes the helm in the second.