Reworked fairytale has still got that magic
CINDERELLA Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures Festival Theatre, Edinburgh Retains the original magic
WHEN you’re an opera and ballet fan, you often find yourself dealing with works that are a hundred, if not 200, years old. So there’s always an added interest in the world premiere of a work.
That’s not quite the case here, of course. The reimagining of Cinderella in Edinburgh by Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures company is a fair few years on from its world premiere.
But arriving at the Festival Theatre, I couldn’t help but cast my mind back 21 years to 1997, when I first saw this work, at its world premiere in London.
It was a much-anticipated evening, as Bourne’s previous full-length balletic reimagining – the iconic Swan Lake with the (in)famously male swans – had taken the West End by storm.
The only question was; could he repeat the magic? The answer was emphatically yes, even though his Cinderella couldn’t quite recreate Swan Lake’s sense of absolute wonder. More than 20 years on, this new touring production retains the original magic.
This Cinderella story is relocated from some fantasy Ruritanian world to London during the Blitz. Harry here is not a prince, but a pilot – with two friends named Tom and Dick.
Far from stopping at two ugly sisters, Bourne creates an extended and hugely dysfunctional family. A special mention here for Madelaine Brennan’s scarily glamorous stepmother Sybil – inspired, apparently, not by Mrs Fawlty, but by Hollywood legend Joan Crawford.
Another reinvention on the original is that Cinderella’s saviour turns out to be not a Fairy Godmother but a Fairy Godfather, danced with a debonair elegance and considerable panache by Liam Mower. A Fairy Godfather? Matthew Bourne? Who would’ve thought, eh? The role is credited as The Angel in the cast list. But the connection is inevitable. As ever, however, the production lives or dies on the performance of the principals. Andrew Monaghan’s RAF pilot Harry is suitably dashing as one of ‘the Few’ enjoying a fleeting romance before being hurled back into the deadly war in the air. He judges his role exceptionally well, providing the necessary support to his Cinderella (Ashley Shaw) while never attempting to upstage her. It is a finely balanced and perfectly nuanced performance. But Miss Shaw is, as she should be, the star of the Cinders show.
She truly is exquisite, effortlessly dancing the gamut of the emotions, from deep depression to soaring joy, from darkest tragedy to shining happiness. She is an absolute gem and should be treasured as such.
THE design of this show is sumptuous. Lez Brotherston won an Olivier Award for his original set and costume design and this production matches that standard.
Worthy of particular mention is the glitz and carnage of the ballroom scene. This is clearly based on the fearful events of March 8, 1941, when the Café de Paris nightspot in London’s Soho was hit by two German bombs that penetrated its subterranean location and exploded right in front of the stage.
What might have been a difficult scene to pull off is wonderfully handled, with an adept combination of glamour and gore – which is just as it was on the night, when at least 34 revellers were killed.
I was a little saddened by the absence of a live orchestra. The ‘surround sound soundtrack’ was fairly impressive, featuring an 82-piece orchestra and sounds eerily evocative of the Blitz, but it’s not the same as a live band.
Overall, though, Matthew Bourne and New Adventures are still one of the most impressive dance companies in Britain. An evening with them is never one wasted.
Cinderella; Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures; Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, until tomorrow; King’s Theatre, Glasgow, June 12-16.