Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff
Tue 26 April
Expect the unexpected. That tip is for the uninitiated entering the world of Matthew Bourne who think they’ll be seeing the conventional. Like other enfants terribles of dance such as Michael Clark and Mark Morris, Bourne delights in knocking down boundaries and swiftly jéte-ing over them. With Sleeping Beauty, he’s completed his Tchaikovsky trilogy of ballets that started with Nutcracker! and Swan Lake. Re-imagining a classic doesn’t necessarily make it better, sometimes it just makes it different.
The original has never been high on the passion-meter and for some can be too sugary-sweet – strange prince awakens princess with a kiss, and it’s love at first sight. Bourne spices things up with a twist – this is Sleeping Beauty Meets The Prince Of Darkness.
We sense this Aurora’s not going to be a prim and proper princess because she’s introduced as a mischievous, life-like puppet crawling rings around her nanny and other servants, in place of the usual boring doll. Another welcome change is that instead of disappearing all too soon, the wicked fairy Carabosse lives on, in spirit, in her just-as-sinister son, Caradoc.
Aurora’s coming-of-age party is set in a specific time period – the Edwardian era, circa 1911. On a glorious summer’s day, it’s a tableaux come to life: tennis, parasols, a picnic and – not only lovely waltzing but the latest dance crazes of the day – including the Castle Walk. This is where designer Lez Brotherston particularly shines with his costumes and sets and rates a fourth star. The look of the show is so delightfully (and at times sinfully) rich and ornate. The good fairies are goth peacocks with their blackened eyes, leather-look tights and tattered colours of blue, purple, green, silver and gold. Needed to see their white wings to keep track that they weren’t baddies, though, and their leader is called the Count. Hints of things to come. One of the loveliest scenes is when Aurora falls into deep sleep after pricking her finger on the rose offered by Caradoc. The gates to the castle are slowly locked, and she floats weightlessly among the overgrown vegetation.
The second half is largely dedicated to the good vs. evil battle over Aurora between Caradoc and her love, the royal gamekeeper Leo, who‘s followed her roughly 100 years through time. Things turn Hammer horror when the action switches to what looks like the Hellfire Club dominatrix disco. All black and red-hot decadence. Leo, even though he’s gone through a drastic change himself, seems to be no match for the sexy vampire Caradoc. Know Aurora and Leo represent young love, and though some of the choreography during their garden pas de deux was reminiscent of Romeo And Juliet, it lacks the real emotion of that. The audience liked bringing the show to the present, with selfies and hoodies, but this broke the magic spell for me. Did like the addition of a conveyor belt shrouded in mist to move the corps along, though. There’s a tad too much emphasis on the boys and not enough on the beauty, also.
The company – with the leads on the night of Ashley Shaw, Adam Maskell, Chris Trenfield and Liam Mower – presented with dancing that was entrancing and polished. This Sleeping Beauty – A Gothic Romance is actually a mix of ballet and modern dance that doesn’t always have the majesty of the original but was certainly worth the trip to see if there was a happily ever after.
words RHONDA LEE REALI, photos JOHAN PERSSON