BEAKS BEARING GIFTS

From The Independent’s archive: Jenny Gilbert reviews Matthew Bourne’s 1995 production of ‘Swan Lake’

Matthew Bourne’s production at Sadler’s Wells is dark, searching and provocative. As in all the greatest theatre, you leave shaken and also stirred.

As usual, we must wait until Act II for the full impact of the corps de ballet. Even those prepared for the sight of men in white-feathered bermudas are not expecting this, a muscular mass of preening, strutting and swooping creatures. The swan leader, Adam Cooper, stands out a mile for his supple sensuality, his leaps light as feather-bedding, his primal animal presence. When he finally allows the Prince to join him in a proud pas de deux the audience shares Siegfried’s own awed amazement.

Bourne tackles the black swan problem by reintroducing Cooper as a sexually charged charismatic guest at the Queen’s party. Tight leather trousers, black tailcoat and even (crikey) a whippy littleriding crop are all

the props Cooper needs to turn in a dangerously licentious performance.

The denouement, when it comes, is seat-gripping. Suffice to say that it involves pistol shots, a lunatic asylum and a horrific death by pecking. This show will be talked about for months. The plot imposes nothing that Tchaikovksy’s score cannot contain, and in working through its meticulous attention to psychological nuance, Bourne finds a dramatic potency that goes far beyond what dance is normally capable of.

This review first appeared in The Independent on Sunday