Matthew Bourne, who was awarded a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours list, has been reinventing the classic ballets for close on 30 years. His great achievement, ever since his unforgettable all-male Swan Lake, is that he has been able to win over audiences who don’t know about dance and wouldn’t normally go and see a ballet.
Bourne subtitles his version of Sleeping Beauty at Sadler’s Wells Theatre as A Gothic Romance. Princess Aurora is born in 1890. She pricks her finger in 1911 and wakes up in 2011. Designer Les Brotherton creates the Victorian, Edwardian and modern settings. Tchaikovsky’s pre-recorded music is played extremely loudly; purists will be irritated with the liberties taken with the score.
Aurora, when she is a baby, is played by a rod puppet. When she becomes a teenager (Ashley Shaw) she falls in love with a sweet gamekeeper (Dominic North). The Lilac Fairy is now Count Lilac (Chris Marney) – a vampire (all the fairies are vampires).
The wicked Carabosse (Tom Clark) dies in Bourne’s version. But she has a son called Caradoc (also danced by Tom Clark). The best gag of the evening is when he gives Aurora the kiss of life and she doesn’t wake up. He gives her a good shaking but it has no effect.
When he was 13 years old Akram Khan appeared in Peter Brook’s famous production of the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata. Now 41, he has adapted one of its stories, Until the Lions, at the Roundhouse. A princess is abducted on her wedding day by a celibate prince. She kills herself and then, reincarnated, assumes the identity of a male warrior, and kills the prince.
There are just three dancers, plus four musicians, on and around a circular bare stage which is a sliced tree trunk with fissures. It has an epic feel – the very physical drama lasts an hour. The lighting is harsh. Chin-Ying Chien and Christine Joy Ritter are cast as the princess; Khan is the prince.
I didn’t bother with the actual storyline, which is difficult to follow, and concentrated on the frenzied, whirling dancing, the classic Kathak movement and the erotic coupling, all performed to the excitingly loud beat of the drum. The final smoky image, with the stage seemingly on fire, and the musicians hurling bamboo poles on the flames, is awesome.
The award-winning New Zealander mime artist Trygve Wakenshaw comes to the Soho Theatre with his show Nautilus, after big successes at the Edinburgh Festival. His targets include Rapunzel (she with the long hair), a bored backing vocalist and a polite air stewardess. Best of all is his parody of a stand-up comedian chatting away without a single word being spoken. His humour is physical and surreal. I particularly liked the sheep, which sheared its own wool and knitted a jumper; and the chicken, which stepped into the pan, as if having a bath, and then cooked herself.
Rob Hayes’s This Will End Badly at Southwark Playhouse is presented in collaboration with Calm, the Campaign Against Living Miserably. It is a registered charity, which exists to prevent male suicide. The 60-minute monologue, spoken at speed by Ben Whybrow, is a catalogue of pain, rage, frustration and disappointment.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.