Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell
Theatre Royal Bath ★★★★★
ONE definition of the word imagination is “the ability of the mind to be creative and resourceful”. Those words are an almost perfect description of Matthew Bourne’s thought process. In this latest production, the first from his New Adventures company since 2019, based on stories from the novels of Patrick Hamilton, he intertwines six stories involving lonely people seeking, sometimes desperately, to make contact with another person.
Among the group who frequent the Midnight Bell pub are a lonely spinster, a schizophrenic, a prostitute, a chorus boy, a cad, an out of work actress, as well as pub regulars and the staff.
There is no question of following through their stories to a happy or tragic end; having skilfully drawn you into their lives, Matthew Bourne leaves you to create your own endings.
The way in which he weaves this tapestry together is fascinating, and has no right to work, but it does.
All these characters and their relationships come vividly to life as ten dancers interpret choreography that uses a new score by Terry Davies, and nine remastered 1930s records, with vocals by Al Bowlly, Elizabeth Welch, Rudy Vallée, Arthur Tracy and Leslie A Hutchinson. The way in which Matthew Bourne uses Hutchinson’s recording of Cole Porter’s What Is This Thing Called Love? to bring out the drama and desperation of the characters is masterly. At one time, three pairs of dancers share the same setting – a bare flat with a mean-looking single bed – yet never clash as they play out their stories.
That scene is not the only place where several stories are intertwined, giving you at times almost a surfeit of fascinating choreography, danced with beauty and grace, to enjoy.
A unique imagination has been at work drawing together the unlikely strands of Patrick Hamilton’s novels, new music and 1930s recordings, with highly skilful, inventive choreography and top-quality dancing to bring it so vividly to life.