One of Britain's foremost ballet companies, Northern Ballet, seemingly taking a little break from their latest production of Victoria, have made a welcome return to one of their earlier crowdpleasers, touring only for two weeks, one week each in Salford and Southampton, of The Great Gatsby.
The ballet very closely follows the origianl narratve from the famous F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the same name. Since the novel's 1925 publication, there have been numerous adaptations, most famously with the 2013 film by Baz Luhrmann starring Leonardo Di Caprio. However, as good as this evening's ballet was - and please don't misunderstand me here, the ballet was all kinds of positive superlatives - it was lacking in both comprehensibility and truth.
I am not going to critique the actual dancing. I wouldn't (and couldn't) presume to be in any position to be able to do so in any case. All I can say about the actual moves is that they were all utterly superb and magical. Knowing how long and how hard ballet dancers need to train to reach such a level is in itself an amazing feat, and their agility and technique was spellbinding. However, what was noticeably lacking this evening was any real substance. Alow to me extrapolate...
First, if one didn't know the story or had not read the programme's detailed synopsis, then anyone new to this tale would have had great difficulty in following the narrative. Director and choreographer David Nixon seemed to concentrate very much on the dancing (and why not, this is a ballet afterall) but seemed to skim very much so on playing out the narrative (it's a ballet and therefore a story told through the medium of dance). Second, which follows on nicely from this, there was a lack of gravitas and substance in the presentation. There were indeed some lovely elements of comedy in the dance, especially in the first act, and a very strong feeling that Nixon was not taking himself or the piece as a whole too seriously, entering into the zeitgeist of the 'Roaring 20s'; however, what was lacking was an element of danger. an element of feeling threatened. Even the more tragic second act failed to make me and those around me emote the way we ought to have been doing. Third, and finally, all this boils down to the quality of the acting. Yes, acting. From the vast majority of the company this evening the acting skills sad to relate, were less than amateurish, and from some, none-existent. This is such a shame. we want to emote, to laugh and cry with you and be swept along in a tragic story of epic proportion, but if all we can do is applaud the technical ability of the fabulous contortions and leaps etc, then it stops being ballet and is just simply a dance. The only dancer who truly impressed with her sincerity and acting ability was Pippa Moore as Jordan Baker. No OTT pantomimic emotion gestures from her, just a feeling that she was truly Jordan Baker throughout, and totally believable.
The set was, for a touring production, quite acceptable and gave large free spaces for the dances to take place as well as adding greatly to the overall feel and placing of the piece. Along with costuming this was very firmly the early 1920s and it all looked very authentic and true to period. One consideration though was that the set didn't convey the opulence and grandeur of the lifestyle of Gatsby. We got no indication that he lived in a large manor house and was one of the richest men in America. So little difference was there between this and the car mechanic's garage set. That was a shame. Also, one more thing which spoiled this set for me was the use of what looked like cellophane on both the door and window of one of the flies. It looked very cheap and makeshift sadly.
Lighting and music however impressed me greatly. Tim Mitchell's simple but highly effective and creative lighting design was quite simply, superb. No flashy unnecessary gimmicks, but making sure we understood time, place, location, and mood with skill and this added greatly to the overall effect. Whilst John Pryce-Jones' magnificent understanding of the glorious music of one of my favourite composers, who sadly left us earlier this decade, Richard Rodney Bennett [not to be confused with the American contemporary Robert Russell Bennett!] as he conducted The Northern Ballet Sinfonia this evening was nothing short of wonderful. A composer who knew how to use his classical training and weave contemporary sounding melodies and jazz influences into a very complex score, and to make it sound so easy. Bravissimi!
Endnote: The Northern Ballet truly has some extremely talented dancers in it's fold, that much was evidenced this evening, but I feel that a little more attention to the actual story-telling would have improved this production enormously. That notwithstanding, it was a highly enjoyable evening, superbly danced.
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 8/5/19
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