THREE ASHTON BALLETS: SCÉNES DE BALLET / A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY / SYMPHONY: Ashton's Enduring Legacy

Sir Frederick Ashton had a life as packed with incident as one of his ballets.  Born in Ecuador to British parents, he did not move to England until he was 15 to a public school to learn a trade.  He was miserable there as he had already seen what he wanted to be his future: he had seen Anna Pavlova dance and was desperate to be a dancer but his family refused to contemplate it.  His father commited suicide when Fred was 20 and, despite his mother and sister joining him in London, he followed his dream and was accepted as a pupil by two former Ballets Russes stars Leonide Massine and later by Marie Rambert.  As well as all these influences, he had also seen the iconic Isadora Duncan dance.

By 1930 Ashton had been encouraged by Rambert to concentrate on choreography and he worked for her company Ballet Club which morphed into Ballet Rambert.  In 1935, after working with her on several production, Ashton joined another former Ballet Russes star Ninette de Valois as her company choreographer.  So Ashton was well placed when, after WWII, de Valois' company was invited to form the new ballet company at Covent Garden Opera House, the company that ten years later were granted the title The Royal Ballet.  Two years after moving to Covent Garden Ashton created SCÉNES DE BALLET (1948) to music by Igor Stravinsky.

Against a surreal background, the short piece still holds the attention with Ashton's pioneering geometric choreography, the dancers' sharp staccato movements and the arresting although slightly dated costume colours of yellow, black, purple and blue.  The lead performances by Yasmine Naghadi and Reece Clarke were fine.

De Valois stood down as director in 1963 and Ashton took over.  Although no fan of administration his tenure continued to build The Royal Ballet's fame but when the CEO David Webster stood down in 1970 he wanted a whole new creative team to take over so Ashton was forced to stand down too which was an upset to him.  Sir Fred still created the occasional ballet including his narrative masterpiece A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY (1976)

We had seen A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY in 2019 and it remains a remarkable adaptation of Turgenev's play.  Natalia Petrovna rules her country home with a charming grace, adored by her husband Ysiaev, son Kolia, her ward Vera and close friend Rakitin.  Her life is changed however when her son's new tutor arrives, handsome student Baliaev.  He returns Natalia's affections but when Vera discovers them together, she jealously alerts the whole family to their romance; Baliaev leaves and Natalia is left with her lovelorn feelings.

Peggy Ashcroft told Ashton that his version was better than the original play and at only 40 minutes it whips along. Ashton's clean, classic tone and economic story-telling shine and his choreography allows moments for the cast to stand out such as Liam Boswell's solo as Kolya.  It is a haunting cameo of a ballet, perfectly matched to a selected score by Chopin.  William Bracewell was a passionate Baliaev and Isabella Gasparini was fine as Vera.  But the heart of the ballet was the remarkable Natalia Osipova - her poise and elegance changed by sudden love ending up crushed, slowly walking towards an uncertain future.  

In 1980, Sir Fred aged 76 was invited to devise a short piece to celebrate The Queen Mother's 80th birthday and he produced RHAPSODY to music by Rachmaninoff.  As Mikhail Baryshnikov was a guest artist with The Royal Ballet, the male lead role is certanly more showier than the female partner, originally danced by Lesley Collier.  Ashton had used the music before in Vincente Minnelli's film STORY OF THREE LOVES but devised new choreography for this commission.  

Baryshnikov missed the start of rehearsals so Ashton perfected the female lead's solos and the ensemble of 6 male and 6 female dancers.  When he arrived Baryshnikov was disappointed that his movements were in the brash "Russian style" and not the more nuanced English style that Ashton had created but he threw himself into it.  Here it was a perfect fit for Steven McRae's bravura style although it was still an edge-of-seat performance as it is only 7 months since his return to the stage where he tore his tendon during a performance in MANON which took two years to heal.  Anna Rose O'Sullivan was a delightful partner but Steven's astonishing leaps and sheer panache made him the focus of attention throughout; it ended with a lovely "That's all" pose which won him cheers to the Faberge egg-style roof.

Sir Fred died eight years after RHAPSODY's creation, his place in the history of dance assured and his legacy of work lives on vibrantly in the company he helped form.

L'HEURE EXQUISE at The Linbury & ROMEO AND JULIET at Covent Garden

As you know Constant Reader, my final pre-lockdown theatre trip was to see the late Liam Scarlett's SWAN LAKE at Covent Garden so how odd it was to visit it again twice in as many days; a bit wary but we did it.  The main reason was to see two favourite dancers who illuminate The Royal Ballet company.

The first was a ballet amuse-bouche, only 70 minutes, but what a remarkable 70 minutes!  It was Maurice Béjart's L'HEURE EXQUISE from 1998, a dance adaptation of Samuel Beckett's HAPPY DAYS.  Becket without the words?  It sounds a stretch but the ballerina playing 'She' does speak occasionally, enough at least to put the piece into some context.

Actually I like HAPPY DAYS so I found it enjoyable but missed the profound quality that the play has: Winnie finds her life shrinking: buried up to her waist in earth but still able to apply her make-up, play with her parasol, sort through her capacious handbag - sure in the knowledge that the gun she has could be used in the last resort = and all the time chatting away to her husband Willie, just out of sight to her.  But all changes in the second half as she is now buried up to her neck, all she can access are her memories, but Willie is still there and she remembers the words to their love song "The Merry Widow waltz".

In L'HEURE EXQUISE, Winnie is now named She, an aging ballerina buried up to her waist in her old ballet shoes and as she chatters away to her partner He, she remembers her career.  Luckily for the audience, the mound of shoes parts and we watch She as she recalls dancing as a child to reaching success, dancing many roles and seemingly ending up in a vaudeville routine - all the time helped and hindered by He as her father / dance partner / manager.  Only three dancers have danced the role professionally: the late Carla Fracci who originated it, Maina Gielgud and now Ferri (under Gielgud's staging).

Ferri chose this to celebrate her 40th anniversary with The Royal Ballet which is no small achievement in the life of a ballet dancer - even one who is a prima ballerina assoluta.  In the 120+ years since the first assoluta was named there have only been thirteen dancers granted that title: there are three still living but only Ferri remains dancing.  She is simply glorious; when she dances you believe every gesture, every movement - she is an actress without needing words but here she handled both with ease.  She was partnered by Carsten Jung, ex-principal with the Hamburg Ballet.

Our second visit was to see the return to the Covent Garden stage of our favourite male dancer Steven McRae, it was a performance that we needed to see...  On 16th October 2019, we were overjoyed to see him on stage at Covent Garden again, after nearly two years injured.  We were nearly at the end of the 2nd Act of Kenneth MacMillan's MANON and McRae was dancing alone on the stage: two leaps, two pirouhettes - then he froze for a few seconds, and hopped into the wings as the curtains closed but not before hearing chilling, unforgettable howls of pain.  Kevin O'Hare, Director of the Royal Ballet, appeared onstage to confirm Steven was injured and would be replaced for the rest of the performance.

It later transpired that he had endured a full rupture of his Achilles tendon and we followed his slow, determined rehabilitation back to full dancing strength and here we were, two years after that ghastly night, to see him dance again.  Could he?  Would he?  

A massive cheer greeted his first appearance and as wonderful as it was to see him again, we were on the edge of our seats right up to the last chords of Prokofiev's score, but he absolutely triumphed.  Giving us a Romeo of passion and verve, Steven was greeted with an enormous ovation at the end. 

It must have been very special for him to share his return with his frequent stage partner Sarah Lamb who emotionally pushed him forward to take a solo bow and joined in the rapturous applause for him. Sarah Lamb was an exquisite Juliet, her grace and elegance turned by her secret love into determination and ultimately devastation.  What a marvellous partnership they have on stage!

MacMillan premiered ROMEO AND JULIET in 1965 with the iconic pairing of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev but it wasn't meant to be them.  He had created the roles for the younger Christopher Gable and Lynn Seymour but they were demoted to the second cast when demands for box-office names for the subsequent US tour won out - Gable and Seymour even had to help teach the more famous pair their roles due to time constraints in rehearsals.

The unhappy situation resulted in MacMillan leaving The Royal Ballet the following year but returned to be it's artistic director from 1970 to 1977 when he became it's principal choreographer until his death backstage during a revival of his MAYERLING in 1992.  Along with his other great works, ROMEO AND JULIET has remained in the repertoire and is still a glorious creation, it grips from the start with a thrilling choreographed sword fight in the city square which results in five bodies piled up centre-stage; in McMillan's Verona, danger is only a hair's breath away.

John B Read's lighting and the original evocative set design by the late Nicholas Georgiadis are still wonderful while McMillan's truly thrilling choreography is staged this time by Christopher Saunders and Laura Morera. Sergei Prokofiev's score sounded excellent played by the Opera House orchestra under the baton of Koen Kessels.

There was good support from James Hay and Bennet Gartside as Mercutio and Tybalt, Christopher Saunders was also a controlling Lord Capulet partnered by Elizabeth McGorin as Lady Capulet and Kristen McNally's bustling Nurse.  The night we saw it marked the 514th performance of MacMillan's masterpiece: here's to many more - and welcome back Steven!

MANON at Covent Garden - High drama, emotion and tears - and a ballet too

It had been an evening I was looking forward to for several reasons: first to see again Kenneth MacMillan's dark and dangerous MANON which we first saw last year, and secondly we were finally to see the wonderful Steven McRae dancing the male lead of des Grieux as he was returning from injury.

Abbé Prévost published his novel of Manon Lescault in 1731 only to have the print run banned because of it's sexual subject but pirated copies made it hugely popular.  In the 20th Century it inspired seven silent and sound films, four operas, a Japanese musical and two ballets!  Kenneth MacMillan choreographed his for the Royal Ballet in 1974, the critics disliked it but the audiences loved it and here we are 45 years later and it is still in the repertoire.

MacMillan wanted his new creation to show off not only the Royal Ballet principals but to also showcase the ensemble, and MANON certainly does that.  It also gave him another chance to explore the presentation of dangerous, corrupted love through dance.  The score was commissioned by MacMillan from composer / conductor Leighton Lucas, compiled from works by Jules Massenet and it is a remarkable achievement as it does sound like a unified piece.

Young Manon, on her way to a convent, arrives at a Parisian tavern to meet her brother Lescault.  He notices a passenger watching her so Lescault escorts him inside to arrange a meeting.  Outside, Manon meets student des Grieux and it's love at first sight.  They flee but another rich man, Monsieur GM, approaches Lescault and offers him a reward for Manon.  They track the lovers to their lodgings and Manon chooses Monsieur's diamonds over des Grieux's love.  The four meet again at a debauched party and Manon lets des Grieux know she still loves him. Monsieur discovers des Grieux cheating him at cards and again the lovers flee but Monsieur appears with police to arrest Manon as a prostitute and he shoots Lescault in anger.  Deported to New Orleans as a prostitute, a lecherous gaoler attempts to rape Manon, but des Grieux, who has followed her to America, kills him and again they flee... but in the swamps of Louisiana their love reaches it's tragic climax.

Partnered with Akane Takada's well-danced but colourless Manon, Steven McRae provided his brand of vivid, charismatic dancing as des Grieux and it was a joy to see him back onstage after an injury-strewn year and a half.  He partially tore his Achilles tendon at the start of 2018 which nearly ended his dance career and at the start of this year he injured his knee on the set of the upcoming film of CATS.  All in all, we missed four productions he was due to appear in so seeing him back on the Covent Garden stage for the first time in nearly a year was a joy.

The lights came up for the last scene of the Second Act; Des Grieux has rescued the wayward Manon from the corrupt clutches of Monsieur but is unaware that his rival is closing in.  Alone on stage, McRae executed two small gazelle leaps and two relatively small pirouettes then stretched up... froze for a second or two... then limped into the wings with his right leg raised.  After a moment or two a stage manager came on and asked us for a moment while they sorted out a problem.  The curtains were quickly brought in but not before we, his shocked audience, could hear Steven's heartbreaking wails from backstage.

Kevin O'Hare, the Director of The Royal Ballet, appeared to tell us what we all suspected, that Steven had sustained an injury and would not be able to complete the performance.  Reece Clarke who had just appeared as a guest in the party scene was able to play des Grieux for the final scene of Act II and all of Act III.

The show continued and Clarke has to be applauded for stepping in at such short notice and be able to focus on his own performance knowing that everyone's minds were obviously elsewhere. Congratulations too for Akane Takada who had only 30 minutes to recalibrate her performance to partner the taller Clarke who has a different style of McRae - needless to say both received a big ovation at the curtain.

Any difficulty in emotionally engaging with MANON's relentlessly shallow characters is enveloped in the glorious sweep of MacMillan's vision, recreated here by Julie Lincoln.  Manon's world is still wonderfully realized by the late Nicholas Georgiades' designs; the design suggests that behind the opulent world that Manon aspires to is desperate poverty and danger where people can be discarded if they overstep their class or usefulness.

The supporting characters were all performed by the same dancers from last year and were still excellent: James Hay as Lescault was well-partnered in his drunken pas de deux by Yuhui Choe as his mistress, Thomas Whitehead was very hissable as Monsieur and Kristen McNally gave the procuress a suitably decadent panache.  I am really glad I saw MacMillan's masterpiece again but I wish it had been under happier conditions.

Steven McRae's injury was diagnosed as a full Achilles tendon rupture and he will have surgery in the week starting 28th October.  He is the king of positivity but at 33 he must have worries about his future.  Hopefully the operation and recovery will be successful and we can see this magical dancer for a few years more.  Steven posted the pictures of him and Akane Takada rehearsing the famous pas-de-deux from Act III which he did not get to perform on the night which is a shame as it looks amazing.

All best wishes Steven!

ROMEO AND JULIET at Covent Garden - Grief so Brief

“O, swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon..." or your favourite dancers.

It is now four years since we discovered the Royal Ballet's wonderful repertoire and one of the first productions we saw was Kenneth MacMillan's classic Shakespeare adaptation ROMEO AND JULIET with Steven McRae dancing Romeo.  Steven soon became our favourite male dancer, a performer with real star quality, and when it was announced he was dancing the role again this year, tickets were snapped up.  However on his last day of filming CATS, McRae had a knee injury which required a surgical procedure.  "Romeo, Romeo... wherefore art thou Romeo?"  He's resting his knee that's where he is.  This is sad as we also missed him last year in SWAN LAKE and MANON through being out injured.  Anyway where were we?  Oh yes, "Two households both alike in dignity..."

McMillan's production originated in 1965, his first full-length work for the Royal Ballet.  He had expanded a pas-de-deux filmed for Canadian TV with the young pairing of Lynn Seymour and Christopher Gable and was determined they would be his original star-crossed lovers.  But the production was due to tour the USA after it's premiere and the American promoter wanted the star wattage of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev and the Royal Ballet management gave in, so Gable and Seymour were demoted to the second cast and even had to teach the two more famous dancers some of the moves which must have been particularly galling.  McMillan felt betrayed by the decision and left the Royal Ballet the next year to run the ballet company at the Deutsche Ballet in Berlin.  He would return to Covent Garden as the Artistic Director in 1970 but resigned seven years later to be the company's principal choreographer.

I still find it remarkable that a production can remain for 54 years in a repertoire - no matter how hard you look you will not find Franco Zeffirelli's MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING or Peter Wood's LOVE FOR LOVE at the National Theatre or Peter Hall's THE HOMECOMING at the Royal Shakespeare Company.  But it's a minor quibble as ROMEO AND JULIET is still a glorious creation, involving from the start with a thrilling choreographed sword fight in the city square which ends with five dead bodies piled up centre-stage, McMillan's Verona is always a hair's breath away from danger.

John B Read's lighting and the original evocative set design by the late Nicholas Georgiadis combine to give you an immediate understanding of place while McMillan's truly thrilling choreography is realized by Julie Lincoln and Christopher Saunders.  Sergei Prokofiev's score sounded excellent played by the Opera House orchestra under the baton of Paul Murphy.

Steven McRae's replacement was Ryoichi Hirano and Juliet was danced by Akane Takada - who always seems to be on when we visit.  Hirano was technically fine but was dramatically colourless; Takada embodied the full arc of Juliet, delicate and joyful at the start, troubled and passionate in love and death at the end.

As usual, there was fine support from James Hay and Bennet Gartside as the deadly rivals Mercutio and Tybalt, Kristen McNally and Thomas Whitehead were fine as Juliet's controlling parents, and there was great scene-stealing from the vivacious strumpets led by Itziar Mendizabal.

Despite Steven McRae's absence, ROMEO AND JULIET was wonderful to see again and to relive Kenneth McMillan's creative genius.

MAYERLING at Covent Garden: McRae's back... and firing on all cylanders

He's back,, and the Royal Ballet's still got him!   After ten months away from the stage recovering from an injury, Steven McRae,the most charismatic of Royal Ballet male stars, is back and dancing up a storm!  However as one returns so another is up on bricks: Edward Watson who was due to dance the role of the tortured Crown Prince Rudolf for some performances in this revival has had to limp away injured.  I hope he recovers quickly.

Kenneth MacMillan's brooding masterpiece is now 40 years old but has lost none of it's power to unsettle - luckily there are two intervals for you to exhale after the pressure-cooker atmosphere his choreography engenders.  The bleakness of the tale of Crown Prince Rudolf and his teenage mistress Mary Vetsera casts a strange, disturbing atmosphere.

Rudolf was a death-obsessed womanizer addicted to morphine and addled with syphilis. His politically expedient marriage to Princess Stephanie of Belgium left both miserable but his wish to separate was refused by his parents Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elizabeth which was jaw-dropping hypocrisy as they both had lovers and lived separate lives.

Countess Marie Larisch, a former mistress and one of his mother's ladies-in-waiting, knew Mary Vetsera's mother and, as they both wanted advancement at court, they affected an introduction between the 30 year-old Prince and 17 year-old Mary, who was obsessed with him.  After a secret three month affair, he invited her to the royal hunting lodge of Mayerling.  Mary probably knew why - she left a letter saying they were going together into an uncertain beyond - but the result was two dead bodies and a revolver.

MacMillan's ballet begins and ends with Vetsera's secret, moonlit burial in a monastery cemetery - in real-life a ghoulish affair where her corpse was driven in a carriage to the site, wedged between her two uncles with a broomstick pushed down the back of her coat and a hat covering the bullet wound in the back of her head.  Her uncertain beyond was to be written out of history initially while Rudolf was mourned supposedly dying of a heart rupture.  But eventually their dangerous liaison was revealed...

Thankfully Kenneth MacMillan wasn't in the mood to make Rudolf and Mary tragic victims of a devastating love or a cruel world who refused them happiness as in the film versions of the story; all the characters in his ballet are presented with a clear-eyed realism which makes it hard to sympathize with them but you remain riveted as the lovers pirouette closer to their abyss.

Steven McRae was remarkable as the narcissistic Rudolf, seeming to dance at times to crazed music playing in his own head, emanating an icy disdain for all around him seemingly not connecting with anyone, you suspect that for McRae's Rudolf even Vetsera was simply a means to an end.

Akane Takada danced the role of Mary and did so with a technical precision but I never felt any particular heat from her, the last time I saw it Lauren Cuthbertson danced the role and had been violently passionate.  Meaghan Grace Hinkis was a suitably scared Princess Stephanie and there was the usual very good work from Kristen McNally as the Empress Elizabeth and Laura Morera as the scheming Countess Marie Larisch. 

It's a ballet where the best roles are the women's but Luca Acri was very good as Bratfisch, Rudolf's coach-driver, who has a great solo in the tavern scene which he repeats for the doomed couple in the final scene but falters and stops when he realizes nothing can distract them from their deadly solipsism.

The revival is again staged by Christopher Saunders, Grant Coyle and Karl Burnett and the late Nicholas Georgiades set designs are still wonderfully evocative. However it's the presence of MacMillan that pervades the whole production, for both his artistic and choreographic brilliance and the sadder thought that it was during a 1992 revival of MAYERLING that he collapsed and died alone backstage at Covent Garden from a heart attack.

THE ILLUSTRATED "FAREWELL" / THE WIND / UNTOUCHABLE at Covent Garden

Time for another triple bill from the Royal Ballet, they do come round with some regularity and I know there is another due in April.  Although these all had individual moments, they did not hang together as a whole.

On reflection the one I enjoyed most was Twyla Tharp's THE ILLUSTRATED "FAREWELL" which builds on an earlier ballet she choreographed in 1973 set to Haydn's 'Farewell' symphony.  That work was called AS TIME GOES BY but only used the final movements of the symphony; when invited to work for the Royal Ballet for the first time since 1995, Tharp leaped at the opportunity to choreograph the first two movements of 'Farewell' to flow into the older ballet.

The ballet was, for me, the most thrilling as the opening was danced by the marvellous partnership of Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb whose dancing flows and complements each other beautifully.  Gravity-defying leaps, standing pivots and intricate 'pop' movements that showed their effortless synchronicity well.  As well as being excellent dancers, they also convey real personalities and connect perfectly with the audience.

The older work is introduced soundlessly by the whirling, swirling Mayara Magri who is partnered by Joseph Sissons (who we saw as the tapping Mad Hatter in ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND), and later groupings of five then ten dancers - with occasional appearances by Steven McRae and Sarah Lamb high above the stage, almost ghostly visions of the earlier music.  As I said, for the quality of pure dance, this was my favourite of the three.

Arthur Pita has only choreographed for the Royal Ballet's studio space so for his main stage debut he has gone for an "intimate epic" THE WIND.  Based in part on the original novel by Dorothy Scarborough and the Victor Sjostrom classic silent film which starred Lillian Gish, it certainly grabbed the attention but was over far too soon.  There was no character development and the plot climax was too garbled.  However I enjoyed it while I was watching it for Pita's stagecraft.

The ballet opened with the arresting image of billowing plastic sheeting blowing across the stage from massive jukebox-like fans which kept up the gale all through the act.  A ghostly-pale native American dances with and against the wind before ushering in the plot: young Letty arrives in a dust bowl western town - where the men are men and the sheep are frightened - and marries the taciturn and unemotional Lige. Letty was danced by the always extraordinary Natalya Osipova and she captured the uncertainty of a woman unable to fit into her environment.

Left alone by Lige, Letty is terrorized and later raped by the boo-worthy Wirt (the always-dependable Thomas Whitehead) and as she exacts her revenge on him, the constant howling wind finally snaps her grasp on reality and, watched by the mysterious figures of the native American and a bone-bleached frontier woman, walks into the howling night unafraid.

As I said, Osipova was enthralling as was Edward Watson as the ominous native American, but the piece was just far too short to get much involvement going and the large wind machines were just too modern and clunky for the period setting.  However special shout-out have to go to to the costumes by Yann Seabra which fluttered and whipped around in the constant gale and the lighting by Adam Silverman.

I certainly think I could take another chance to see THE WIND at some later date but hopefully they can find maybe 15 more minutes to allow for some engagement with the main role - maybe they could have trimmed some off Hofesh Shechter's interminable UNTOUCHABLE.  I am amazed it only ran 30 minutes, it seemed so much longer.  One cannot deny the talented 20 dancers onstage who moved in strict rhythm either en mass, as smaller groups or alone but, if truth be told, if I want to see a fascistic, militarist troupe go through their motions, I will watch Janet Jackson's video for RHYTHM NATION.

So there we are - one winner, one curiosity and one dud.  I don't suppose that's a bad batting average but I have seen more cohesive triple bills on the same stage, these three pieces simply didn't coalesce.  Maybe they need to roll the dice again and match them with other ballets?

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND at Covent Garden - The Wonder of Wheeldon

It's four months since we last saw the Royal Ballet company at Covent Garden - yes, we saw LA BAYADERE in August but that was the Marinsky company so it was a welcome joy to be back in the Amphitheatre, pushing past the throng to get to our front row seats to Christopher Wheeldon's acclaimed version of ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND.

I will admit to some trepidation going in as the last time I saw a theatrical production based on Lewis Carroll's evergreen children's story was the truly ghastly WONDER.LAND at the National Theatre, one of the most hideous experiences I have ever had in a theatre - click here to see my blog lynching here - but I really need not have worried.  Christopher Wheeldon's inventive choreography dazzled where WONDER.LAND embarrassed, the set invoked real wonder where WONDER.LAND just created clunking ugliness and Nicholas Wright adaptation managed to evoke the surreal atmosphere of Wonderland that Fiona Buffini's buffooonity didn't.

Christopher Wheeldon's ballet of ALICE premiered in 2011 to great success - which was probably matched by a collective sigh of relief from the Royal Ballet as, amazingly, it was that company's first full-length original work in 16 years.  Joby Talbot's score was also the first original ballet score for the company in 25 years - so as you cans see, a lot was riding on this production.  Wheeldon and Talbot have since rejigged the original two-act structure to a more traditional three-act form with added choreography for Alice and her romantic hero, the Knave of Hearts.

I was also vaguely dreading the 12am start matinee, expecting an auditorium crammed with whingeing Jeremy and Jemimas but they were all on their best behaviour and any worries were soon carried off by Talbot's exhilarating score and Wheeldon's inventive and witty choreography - he is a real story-teller in dance as was shown a few years later with his wonderful version of THE WINTER'S TALE.

A major reason for the production's success is Bob Crowley's outlandish but always on-the-money set and costume designs which again fill the stage with colour but always stay true to Nicholas Wright's version of the tale.  Crowley's design fills the stage with invention and the sheer joy of visual story-telling: his Cheshire Cat looms large over with limbs that fly away to reform as the cat moves around - and his tail has a life of it's own, snaking around Alice keeping her in her place, while the Caterpillar is a sinuous Indian dancer with a retinue of dancers following behind him on point.

Crowley's costumes also hit the right witty note, from the crazed dandy of The Mad Hatter to the eye-popping red of the Queen of Hearts' outfit - I also liked the idea of her being transported everywhere in a heart-shaped cabinet by minions which, when finally opened revealed a quaking King of Hearts at her feet!  Alice's topsy-turvy adventure is also brought to vivid life by Natasha Katz's lighting and the video projections of Jon Driscoll and Gemma Carrington which instantly conjures up a world of vertiginous rabbit holes and halls of endless doors.

Nicholas Wright establishes a framing device which ends with a neat twist: Alice and her sisters are being read to by Lewis Carroll at a garden party, she then dances with her friend Jack, a young gardener, but her imperious mother castigates him for having a red rose in a bunch of white ones.  Jack gives Alice the offending rose and she gives him a jam tart from the party spread but her mother suspects he stole it and dismisses him on the spot.  Lewis Carroll tries to cheer the distraught Alice by taking her photograph; he puts the camera cloth over his head but he sprouts a bunny-tale and emerges as the White Rabbit... the chaos begins.  But don't worry... Alice and Jack are reunited at the end but not in the Victorian era...

Needless to say the cast were flawless: Anna Rose O'Sullivan was a delightfully feisty Alice, establishing a lively character from the start which continued through the Wonderland scenes.  Steven McRae originated the role of The Mad Hatter in 2011 as Wheeldon was impressed with his tap skills as the role consists of a long tap solo during the tea party scene but at our performance he played the roles of Alice's gardener friend Jack and the Jack of Hearts whose stealing of the Queen's jam tarts threads through the show until it climaxes with the anarchy of his trial.  I was disappointed not to see him as the Mad Hatter but it would have meant getting about 5 minutes of seeing him onstage so I happily settled for seeing him throughout the production instead.

Laura Morera was huge fun as the nasty Queen of Hearts, none more so than in her dance with three petrified courtiers, all too aware what will happen if they go wrong.  Based around the Rose Adagio from SLEEPING BEAUTY, Morera was hilarious as she twisted herself into grotesque ballerina positions clinging to her hapless partners for support.

There was also fine support from Alexander Campbell as Lewis Carroll and The White Rabbit, Joseph Sissens as the tapping Mad Hatter - but missed the charisma that McRae would naturally bring to the role - and Nicol Edmonds as the sinuous Caterpillar.

Sadly the performances are all over for this run but it was screened in cinemas last week and I am sure this new classic will be back in the repertoire soon, as Owen said it really would make a great Christmas show.