There are a lot of reasons why you may never see Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty. When term ends you’ll no doubt be racing home and home may not be London. And no matter how much the majority of us grew up reading Angelina Ballerina, loving reading about a feisty little fictional mouse becoming a famous ballerina doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll want to while away three hours watching ballet. (Unless you’re watching Carlos Accosta. Click here if you don’t know who that is). If you know (or think) you don’t like ballet, and you know you don’t like Disney, it would be easy to assume life will be complete without seeing this performance.
You’d be wrong. Any and all of the excuses given for why you may never see Sleeping Beauty at Sadler’s Wells are, for want of a better word, bo***cks. Matthew Bourne, the genius choreographer responsible for revisions of Nutcracker!, Swan Lake, Dorian Gray to name just a few of his endless list of productions, is nothing short of a genius. Every Christmas he brings his dance company New Adventures to Sadler’s Wells and every year I go, to see his latest re-imagining of ballet classics. And every year I go, I wonder how he can possibly out-do the dance phenomenon from yesteryear.
After seeing Sleeping Beauty, I whole-heartedly back myself to say it will be an impossible production to push from its pedestal and that is why I’d urge you, ballet aficionado or no, girly girl or tom boy with two left feet, to try your hardest to snap up a ticket. The timeless fairytale by the Brothers Grimm was first turned into a ballet in 1890 but as Bourne’s haunting new production strove to reawaken the tale in an innovative new way, the story commences with our heroine, Aurora in 1890 before moving forward a century to the modern day. In homage to the era we live in where teens and adults alike can’t seem to get enough of the fashion for vampirism whether they read the Twilight saga or watch Vampire Diaries, True Blood or R Patz and Kristin Stewart being all broody and shiny, Bourne brings a gothic romance to the stage that makes for a truly stunning supernatural love story.
Set to Tchaikovsky’s score and featuring ethereal costumes and magnificent set designs by Lez Brotherston, without sounding too sappy I just don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as beautiful as what Bourne, Brotherston and lighting and sound designers Paule Contable and Paul Groothius created. Bourne is just clever. From baby Aurora, brought to life as a magically animated puppet in the Victorian gothic setting, to Tom Jackson Greaves’s incredible performance as the dark sorcerer Carabosse, the witty undertones of the choreography are only upstaged by the synchronistic splendor of the wild and wonderful fairies, lead by their King, Count Lilac.
If none of this makes any sense or worse, sounds confusing and bizarre, I understand. And sure, if you just don’t really enjoy productions of any kind be it musicals, plays, opera or ballet then you’ll be fine missing out on this one. But remember the scene in Pretty Woman where Vivian’s week with Edward is nothing short of kicking off Cinderella style and he takes her to the opera in the red dress with the diamond necklace? You know the scene. If the escort with the heart of gold who has never been to the opera and (we can assume) has never been to the ballet falls in love with the magic of performance, despite it being a world away from her usual hobbies and favourite past times, it might be worth seeing if you can too.
Photocredits: londontown.com; camdennewjournal.com; birminghamhippodrome.com; operafresh.blogspot.com