Although it begins with a series of kitsch lip-synch routines that establish the hopeless romanticism of the protagonist, Jack Sear’s reworking of classical ballet kicks in when the darkness encroaches. While it does not delve deeply into Giselle’s story or themes, it works a seam of brutal, erotic choreography and captures the nihilism of frustrated desire.

The shift between romanticism and the bleaker scenes of sex and abjection is abrupt: by the time that Sears returns to the light, he, and his ensemble of dancers, have visited violent sex, self-hatred and the anonymity of the dancefloor. In contrast to the lip-synch numbers, the dances of descent are dynamic, despairing and disturbing. Through the pounding beat and nihilistic lyrics of EDM, the show becomes provocative and emotive.

The excitement of abandon gives way to depression, and the choreography restrains the expansiveness of the dancers into taut, jerky movements. It is raw and the finale, which moves through a sound collage of homophobia and redemptive speeches, may reintroduce Judy Garland as an icon of hope but is overshadowed by the power of the journey into the dark.

The episodic structure is jarring, with perhaps a deliberate disjuncture between the tweeness of the first scenes and the subsequent viciousness. This leaves an uneven energy across the show: the finale’s optimism seems fragile but leans into both the continuity of gay experience and (unlike the protagonists of classical ballet) a sense of community for salvation against the forces of curdled desire.

Giselle: Remix, Pleasance Courtyard, until 24 August, 3.40pm; main picture: Ali Wright.