ROMEO + JULIET at Sadler's Wells - Mad Love

On the way into Sadler's Wells I wondered to Owen whether this new Matthew Bourne was going to be another RED SHOES or another DORIAN GRAY - was it going to be one I loved or not affected by at all?  Sigh...

I fear it was one of those occasions when I simply didn't get what other people were reacting to.  My heart vaguely sank when I saw that it was set in the Verona Institute with a standing set of white bricks and metal mesh side walls.  However the first loud sigh started when the show did!

Prokofiev's score has been cut to suit Bourne's cloth and it launched straight into the score's greatest hit 'Montagues and Capulets' aka 'Dance Of The Knights' aka 'The Apprentice UK's Theme Music', the first of quite a few appearances during the ballet - it's like doing a version of THE NUTCRACKER with 'The Dance of The Sugar Plum Fairy' every 15 minutes.

My main gripe was Bourne's clunking premise which, for me, simply refused to fly.  Romeo is admitted to the Bourne Home For The Perpetually Leaping Confused by his careerist politician parents and left to mingle with the usual Bourne misfit inmates including the flashy Mercutio and his gay lover Balthasar and the sadistic guard Tybalt who terrorizes the inmates.

At a scene - shall we say borrowed? - straight out of WEST SIDE STORY, during a party for the inmates - cue lots of gauche acting and stiff-legged two and fro dancing - the mirror ball starts and Romeo and Juliet spy each other across the room - cue the ensemble start to dance in slow motion while our couple instantly fall in love.

Juliet is a twitchy inmate that we find already prowling the walls and always on guard from the nasty advances of Tybalt.  After the party, Tybalt murders Mercutio and the inmates turn on him, all having a hand in his death... and that's only the first half!  And that's the problem...  Surely the pivot for any adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is that the two lovers are separated by blood and circumstance, both interior and exterior obstacles, that result in the fatal outcome... but here, where do the obstacles lie? 

Tybalt is dispatched in the first act so no hindrance there... the Asylum staff hardly seem to care about them; Romeo's parents could care less about them - they are just happy to have their son off their hands... which leaves... what, their madness?  If there is nothing keeping them apart then what do you have left?  You are left with Bourne's scenario which culminates in an out-of-nowhere accident.  Hardly the stuff to inspire 423 years of fascination.

Bourne's choreography was remarkable but not consistently - there seemed to be certain moments which seemed to be retreads from other shows - most noticeably in the party scene where the ensemble did his usual 'embarrased dancer shtick' and in the second-act opener for grieving Balthasar which was an all-too familiar copy of Angelo's jail solo in THE CAR MAN.  The wimpy, whey-faced Romeo of Paris Fitzpatrick struck me again as being based on Bourne's character of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS but thank the lord for the magnetism of Cordelia Braithwaite as Juliet.

As she demonstrated most notably in THE RED SHOES, she is a dancer of exquisite emotion and like in that ballet, here she demonstrated deep wells of maniacal energy that made her incredibly watchable.  To be honest no one else came close although Jackson Fisch went all out for pathos in his Balthasar solo.  The ensemble were all exceptional and gave committed performances.

Lez Brotherston's set was little more than functional but Paule Constable's lighting gave the show the light and shade not always found in the scenario or choreography. 

The ultimate problem for me is that Kenneth McMillan's Royal Ballet version is so unforgettably powerful that even Bourne's anti-romantic take on the score here for me failed because you simply don't care about anyone on stage - and if you don't care what happens to your pair of star-crossed lovers in whatever adaptation you are seeing then what's the point?

Being a Bourne show there will be a tour, a cinema screening at some point and a probable dvd release so I am guessing I will have an opportunity so give it another look.

I suppose...

THE RED SHOES at Sadler's Wells - Bourne to dance...

After what has seemed an interminable wait, finally last Thursday it was time to see Matthew Bourne's new ballet, his stage adaptation of the classic ballet film, THE RED SHOES at Sadler's Wells.  It was certainly worth the wait, it is a wonderful feat of story-telling through dance to the lush music of film composer Bernard Herrmann.

I cannot say I have ever been totally sold on the film which I find rather emotionally sterile - not the first time I have felt that regarding a Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger film - but it's cinematography and music certainly create memorable moments during the central 15 minute ballet sequence.  Personally I am with Val in A CHORUS LINE who shocks the other dancers by saying "Oh, yeah, let's get one thing straight.  See,  I  never heard about "The Red Shoes",  I  never saw "The Red Shoes",  I didn't give a fuck about "The Red Shoes."

The story remains the same - imperious ballet impresario  Boris Lermontov sees young ballerina Victoria Page dancing at a party given by her aunt and is impressed enough to offer her an audition for his company based in Monte Carlo.  Lermontov discreetly follows her progress as a member of the chorus so when the star ballerina Irina is injured , he promotes Victoria to her roles and ultimately to star in the company's new production, a version of Hans Christian Andersen's THE RED SHOES.

Victoria triumphs in the role of a girl who tries on a pair of magic red shoes only to find she cannot stop dancing in them, and also starts a relationship with the composer of the ballet Julian Craster .  The jealous Lermontov sacks Craster and Victoria chooses love over her career and leaves the company.  Their relationship founders however when they return to London after Victoria can only find work dancing in a tatty music hall.   She returns to Lermontov but the red shoes will again change her fate...

The intensely cinematic story is turned by Bourne into a wonderfully vivid and fluid ballet told through many different styles of dance: from classical ballet to romantic duets, from stiff social dancing to the routines of the music hall comedians and showgirls...

THE RED SHOES provides Matthew Bourne with a fantastic opportunity to tell a story which is never less than gripping and shows all his strengths as a master of narrative through dance, there are opportunities for him to show his fondness for character work - the ballet company and backstage creative team - but the importance of keeping the focus on the three main protagonists stops any indulgences in minor characters being too distracting as in his flawed version of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS.

Bourne is reunited with his previous collaborators, designer Lez Brotherston, lighting designer Paule Constable and orchestrator Terry Davies who all contribute hugely to the show's excellence - Brotherston's  evocative and atmospheric design of a rotating proscenium arch takes us both front and backstage  within seconds and his costumes are ravishing; Constable's powerful lighting creates mood and place on the stage, while Terry Davies has woven Herrmann's scores for films as diverse as CITIZEN KANE, THE GHOST AND MRS MUIR and FAHRENHEIT 451 into a seamless whole.

As usual, Bourne uses a  rotating cast of dancers who have all had previous experience in his productions: on the night we went, the luminous Cordelia Braithwaite was quite wonderful  as Victoria while the opposing, brooding men in her life were Sam Archer as Lermentov and Chris Trenfield as Craster.

As I said, Matthew Bourne gives great opportunities for supporting performers to shine and  here Liam Mower and Michela Meazza were excellent as the star performers in Lermontov's company - their jaded Covent Garden rehearsal was great fun to watch, and Glenn Graham was very effective as the company's ballet master and featured dancer.

It was thrilling to see Matthew Bourne again delivering an absolute classic  and THE RED SHOES provides a fitting climax to the year which started with his receiving a knighthood for services to dance.  Next year is New Adventures' 30th Anniversary which will see a regional tour for THE RED SHOES after it finishes it's sold out run at Sadler's Wells, a tour of Bourne early works called EARLY ADVENTURES and the year finishes with a revival of his production of CINDERELLA at Sadler's Wells.   

If you can I urge you to see THE RED SHOES, it has remained dancing around my mind like the red shoes of the title...