Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty Festival Theatre Edinburgh 11th April 2023 Review
Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty is at the Festival Theatre Edinburgh (Tue 11 to Sat 15 Apr) and obviously, from the full theatre tonight, this “New Adventures” production has lost none of its popularity with audiences since its premiere 10 years ago, and it is easy to see why.
Matthew Bourne tells stories without words, often more like a silent film performed on stage, but the language used is a mixture of classical and contemporary dance styles plus the expressive body language of the cast and this format allows for a universal understanding of his stories without language being any barrier to fully understanding them.
The Sleeping Beauty is an old story going back to the 13th century (or even earlier with some themes) and it has been written and rewritten so many times over the centuries. Most people, however, are probably more familiar with the Brothers Grimm fairy tale and Walt Disney’s 1959 animated film. Both versions (and most others too) re-write the very different fate that befalls the sleeping “Aurora” in the original tale.
If, however, you are expecting either of the above stories to be the one that Matthew Bourne is telling on stage here then be prepared for a few surprises and more than a few plot twists as, although the core structure of the story will be familiar to many people, this version is very different.
Here, Matthew Bourne has re-imagined the most popular “Sleeping Beauty” myths and turned them into a true love story set against a gothic background of many elements from dark folk-lore history. With great sets and costume designs, Lez Brotherston has brought his creative vision to this story too and has created a visual fantasy land for everyone on stage to live out this gothic fantasy in.
Musically, this version of Sleeping Beauty of course owes much to Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his classic music from his “The Sleeping Beauty” Ballet (premiered in 1890), but here Matthew Bourne has re-arranged the music to fit his story and its emotional and dynamic moments, and the marriage of a classic score and a new look at how to tell this story works both seamlessly and perfectly. Perhaps this is because Tchaikovsky not only re-arranged some of his own music to fit scenes better for some of his ballets, but also because he too often drew upon stories from folk-lore for his own inspiration.
To pick out any one cast member of a Matthew Bourne production is always a little bit unfair as they are always such a collaborative production with not only the main centre stage story being told, but almost endless permutations of little stories between characters going on around the edges too. Much of the success of the latter is that some of the cast take on different roles for different performances and what they bring to that character can have subtle changes to these little vignettes. A very special performance by Baby Aurora also gives this story some very unexpected moments to this re-imagination of “Sleeping Beauty”
As always with this story, the main focus is always going to be on “Sleeping Beauty” and Cordelia Braithwaite gave a great performance this evening as Princess Aurora as expressive dance, technical ability and an ability to emote a wordless story merged perfectly together. This is of course a gothic fairy story and everyone needs a larger than life villain and as Carabosse, The Dark Fairy and her son Caradoc, Ben Brown makes his evil intentions known with every movement that he makes. In any fairy story, evil must have good to counterbalance it and in the fairy world that is Count Lilac, King of the Fairies, with Paris Fitzpatrick performing that role this evening.
Princess Aurora of course needs her true love to wake her up from her sleep, and in this story that is Leo, and Rory MacLeod brings more than a few surprises to this charachter as Matthew Bourne re-imagines both this role and the whole time-line of the curse upon Princess Aurora itself.
Matthew Bourne’s “Sleeping Beauty” is a contemporary take on an old story that may just over the years ahead be the one that many people choose to remember as the story that they will pass onto coming generations.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Matthew Bourne tells stories without words, often more like a silent film performed on stage, but the language used is a mixture of classical and contemporary dance styles plus the expressive body language of the cast and this format allows for a universal understanding of his stories without language being any barrier to fully understanding them.
The Sleeping Beauty is an old story going back to the 13th century (or even earlier with some themes) and it has been written and rewritten so many times over the centuries. Most people, however, are probably more familiar with the Brothers Grimm fairy tale and Walt Disney’s 1959 animated film. Both versions (and most others too) re-write the very different fate that befalls the sleeping “Aurora” in the original tale.
If, however, you are expecting either of the above stories to be the one that Matthew Bourne is telling on stage here then be prepared for a few surprises and more than a few plot twists as, although the core structure of the story will be familiar to many people, this version is very different.
Here, Matthew Bourne has re-imagined the most popular “Sleeping Beauty” myths and turned them into a true love story set against a gothic background of many elements from dark folk-lore history. With great sets and costume designs, Lez Brotherston has brought his creative vision to this story too and has created a visual fantasy land for everyone on stage to live out this gothic fantasy in.
Musically, this version of Sleeping Beauty of course owes much to Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his classic music from his “The Sleeping Beauty” Ballet (premiered in 1890), but here Matthew Bourne has re-arranged the music to fit his story and its emotional and dynamic moments, and the marriage of a classic score and a new look at how to tell this story works both seamlessly and perfectly. Perhaps this is because Tchaikovsky not only re-arranged some of his own music to fit scenes better for some of his ballets, but also because he too often drew upon stories from folk-lore for his own inspiration.
To pick out any one cast member of a Matthew Bourne production is always a little bit unfair as they are always such a collaborative production with not only the main centre stage story being told, but almost endless permutations of little stories between characters going on around the edges too. Much of the success of the latter is that some of the cast take on different roles for different performances and what they bring to that character can have subtle changes to these little vignettes. A very special performance by Baby Aurora also gives this story some very unexpected moments to this re-imagination of “Sleeping Beauty”
As always with this story, the main focus is always going to be on “Sleeping Beauty” and Cordelia Braithwaite gave a great performance this evening as Princess Aurora as expressive dance, technical ability and an ability to emote a wordless story merged perfectly together. This is of course a gothic fairy story and everyone needs a larger than life villain and as Carabosse, The Dark Fairy and her son Caradoc, Ben Brown makes his evil intentions known with every movement that he makes. In any fairy story, evil must have good to counterbalance it and in the fairy world that is Count Lilac, King of the Fairies, with Paris Fitzpatrick performing that role this evening.
Princess Aurora of course needs her true love to wake her up from her sleep, and in this story that is Leo, and Rory MacLeod brings more than a few surprises to this charachter as Matthew Bourne re-imagines both this role and the whole time-line of the curse upon Princess Aurora itself.
Matthew Bourne’s “Sleeping Beauty” is a contemporary take on an old story that may just over the years ahead be the one that many people choose to remember as the story that they will pass onto coming generations.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com