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Cinders shines through the Blitz
Matthew Bourne's Cinderella Birmingham Hippodrome ***** I DON'T know. You wait ages for a
Cinderella and then two come along at once. The Hippodrome has seen two very different
versions of the folk tale in almost as many months with the Birmingham
Royal Ballet world premier at the end of last year followed by Matthew
Bourne's updated story at the start of this. It is a remarkable
tribute to Prokofiev's
score that David Bintley could use it for a stunning traditional ballet
setting of the fairy story, albeit with some darker moments, while
Bourne could transpose the tale to London in the Blitz with bombings,
terror and devastation. The music felt at home in either production. Bourne's version is his most
lyrical creation so far – if you can say lyrical about dance. Well I
did, so there. But Bourne's productions are not just about dance, he has
a remarkable eye for detail and I defy anyone to watch one of his shows
and spot everything on one viewing. In crowd scenes no one stands and
watches so you have too much to take in around the fringes of the action
whether it is the schoolboy sneaking drinks while the rest of the cast
dance or the bandmaster at the Café de Paris collapsing blind drunk
behind his piano deep in the background. Lez Brotherston's set, as
always, is magnificent with a screen showing wartime newsreels, stunning
graphics and walls that slide, vanish, lift and explode under an
onslaught of German bombs. They seamlessly create an affluent living
room, streets, a tube station, the Embankment, the Café de Paris
nightclub and the devastation left after bombing all with the orange
glow of a burning city beyond the gas holders, presumably at the Oval,
on the horizon. The production is awash with
homage paid to wartime films with the final scene unmistakably a tribute
to Brief Encounter complete with the station clock and tea room
while the nightclub scene does have a touch of Busby Berkeley about it
in some of the routines.
Bourne's Cinderella first lost
her shoe, so to speak, in 1997 when it had a mixed reception but 13
years on and it has been reworked, refined and relaunched into what is a
modern dance masterpiece. Everyone knows the tale of
Cinders with her rotten stepmother and stepsisters and in this case
stepbrothers. Here in the Blitz the prince becomes a wounded hero, a
shot down, injured fighter pilot. As there is lashings
of Hollywood kitsch and a tribute to 1940s
movies it should come as no surprise that Cinders has tightly pulled
back hair, grey frumpy clothes, thick stockings and glasses. We all know
what that means. When her hair is released and the glasses are removed
she will be a real stunner and so it proves in the hands, and feet or
course, of Kerry Biggin who is a wonderful dancer in the part with a mix
of grace and vulnerability. Her stepmother is Italian
Michela Meazza who danced so seductively as Lady H in Dorian Gray and
here adds a sinister, peevish side to her charms but even as a baddy she
is still a delight to watch.
I have no idea if Chrisopher Marney can sing but I will bet my house and yours that Rhydian cannot dance in the same galaxy as the sublime Mr Marney whose role in turm owes much to Marius Goring as Conductor 71, the angel in the 1946 classic A Matter of Life and Death. The Angel might not deal in
pumpkins and mice but like the dear old FG he does see it as his mission
in life to look after Cinders, righting wrongs against her
and giving her a bit of glamour and happiness.
If it is wounded pilot Harry
she wants then it is wounded pilot Harry she shall have - give or
take a couple of hours to justify buying a ticket. And, bandits at 12 o-clock and
all that Harry, complete with handlebar moustache, flies
effortlessly around the stage thanks to Sam Archer
who creates the empitome of the dashing dancer. If you want to be picky then
the piece is not perfect. The opening scene setting is perhaps a little
long although you could forgive anything in act one for the brilliant
dance with the tailor's dummy. The second act in the night
club loses its way at times while the final act, like the first, seems a
bit too much music for the amount of story but with such magnificent
music you're not going to complain too much. Again the final act is lifted
by imaginative use of a line screens in the hospital which are moved
around the stage with a life of their own to create rooms, wards,
corridors – whatever is needed. Nor do the minor failings
detract from what is a brilliant concept and execution of an idea by
Matthew Bourne who is one of the top directors and choreographers in the
world let alone the UK. This might not be his most stunning work but it
is his most accomplished and rounded and shows a maturity of his
phenomenal talent.
Prokofiev, incidentally, wrote
Cinderella in 1943 in Kazakhstan where he had been evacuated from Moscow
away from the war front. The date and circumstance of its
creation was the seed which created the idea in
Bourne's mind of setting the piece in the
Second World War. The melodious, stirring and at
times sad and tender music could easily have been written as much about
the war raging around Stalingrad and Moscow as about a tale of a poor
girl abused by her step family. At the Hippodrome we have been lucky to see both visions shine within weeks of each other. To 19-02-11 Roger Clarke
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The
fairy godmother has been give the boot in favour of an angel, all silver
suited and platinum haired looking a little like a sort of Rhydian
Roberts tribute act.