This production had to be titles, "Sleeping Beauty" because everything on stage took place to the music that is Tchaikovsky's original score for his 1889 ballet, but the show departed in many ways from both traditional ballet and the fairy tale / pantomime associations of the title. Whilst not quite as familiar as "Swan Lake" or "The Nutcracker", there are elements of the score that will be familiar to most through use in films and other medium. For the show itself, Matthew Bourne's production was rightly given the strapline, 'a gothic romance', and was a fully matured ballet, taking the genre in new directions with remarkable settings, and a vibrantly different approach to set and costume.
This take on "Sleeping Beauty" had a very discernible storyline, unlike certain ballets, requiring several brief scene descriptions or years given, in order to keep the audience up to speed. The imaginative setting took us from Czarist Russia of 1890, right up to the present day. ( Or to be precise, yesterday!). The first half started with the interior of a palace with giant embroidered curtains and pannelled mirrors, flanked by imposing columns. This moved on to the Palace gardens, and there were no backscreens. The palace building on a mound in the background looked remarkable and three-dimensional, as did the huge angelic statue, and the sky changed to denote both changing times and weather with impressive technical realism. Against this backdrop the cast were given free rein to tell the story through modern, fluid dance, with the costuming remarkably accurate for the period. No tights for men here, but baggy trousers, and the women often wore long dresses with bustles, yet the dancing was nevertheless smooth and sophisticated without the rigidities of traditional ballet.
There was a lot of humour in the first halfw from an uncontrolable baby who climbs up curtains, to Princess Aurora sneaking a lover into the palace, but by the interval things had taken a darker turn, not just with a spell cast on the princess, but her lovergraphically becoming the victim of a vampire. This gave the second half a very different feel from the outset, as all the gaities of court life gave way to images of death and decay. The palace now abandoned with gates chained and overgrown with foliage. Again the sets were remarkable with a very realistic impression of countless trees rising above a carpet of dry ice. By the time the story reached 'yesterday', an array of dangling lights brought the audience very much up to the presnt day, providing a fittingbackdrop to the finale of a story spanning over acentury.
The strapline of a gothic romance was the key to understanding Bourne's reimagining of the story. Both romance and the issue of death ( the overriding element in the term 'Gothic' ) were very real elements in the telling, and neither were given sugar-coated overtones. The musical pathos matched well the emotional intensity of the key drama points, there was a genuine feeling of spiritual transcendence as the audience was caught up in the story. Aside from the artistry of the dancing and the spectacle of the sets that is. The ending was suitably climatic and satisfying but to say would be to risk giving spoilers.
Bourn's "Sleeping Beauty" was unquestionably ballet, but it was also high drama, as well as successfully combining both elements with comedy was nomean feat to pull off. The Northern School Of Contemporary Dance showed how ballet remains a living genre for our times, capable of reinvention without losing sight of the essential elements of the genre. The audience did not just applaud at the end, they cheered.
Reviewer - John Waterhouse
on - 21.2.23
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