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Casting an elegant shadow
Shadows of War
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Birmingham Hippodrome
**** A WORLD Premiere of any ballet is always
an event and, seventy years on, Miracle of the Gorbals has a
backstory to tell all of its own. First performed in 1944 in the midst of the
Second World War and created by Australian Robert Helpmann, it has been
recreated, re-imagined and refashioned into what is a homage to the
original. The Miracle was last performed in 1958 and with
no record of the choreography dancers still around from the Helpmann
original pooled their recollections of fragments of the choreography,
steps here and there, which were collected by Dame Gillian Lynne, who,
has an 18-year-old had performed in the 1944 original. Lynne, who adored Helpmann, took those snatches
from collective memory, her own recollections and, allied to her
considerable skills as a choreographer and director, she created a new
ballet. Designer Adam Wiltshire had an easier job in that
the design for the front cloth of a ship in dry-dock in the Clyde had
been saved as had Edward Burra’s set models but when it came to costumes
he was on his own, so gave us 1940’s working class outfits with plenty
of flat caps and shawls. It worked perfectly. The ballet itself is set among the tenements of
the Gorbels in the poorest part of Glasgow and sees a sad young woman at
the end of her tether, danced by Delia Mathews,
Enter the mysterious stranger, danced by César
Morales, who hushes the crowd and despite some skepticism from Makay’s
preacher man, brings the woman back to life – cue adulation and instant
hero worship by the crowd . . . and a minister with a nose very much put
out of joint.
We meet a diverse collection of charcters such as
the lovers, danced by Yvette Knight and William Bracewell and the
Gorbals gossips, three old women led by, you guessed it, Marion Tait who
has cornered the market in crones, who is joined by Ruth Brill and Jade
Heuson, and then there is what is described in the cast list as the Evil
Urchin, danced in short pants, that’s his costume not his breathing, by
James Barton. And then there is Elisha Willis in the scarlet dress which should be a clue to her rather ancient profession as a lady of the night She is confronted by the minister who sees it his mission to save the men of the street from her charms – until he finds himself alone with her when praying for her soul appears to be easier to do upstairs and horizontally. With the stranger still the local hero the minister a plot is hatched and the Rev uses the urchin to persuade the new star on the block to go up to the aid of a sick woman, in reality the prostitute, to knock his street cred with the peasantry, which only works until the prostitute emerges, a changed woman, her past life behind her, leaving the people even more n awe of the starnger's powers. The minister, doubly miffed, then calls upon the
ultimate Gorbals’ deterrent, the razor gang, who don’t mess about,
quickly leaving the stranger an ex-stranger, dying in the arms of an old
beggar, danced by Michael O’Hare. The ballet has a strong narrative, and narratives
of unknown stories are ntt the easiest to portray in dance, which after
all is mime when to comes to story telling, but the large cast, with
urchins, passers by, the gang and so on, manage to convey the miracle
well in an effective gloomy set. Music by Arthur Bliss is dramatic in a story
which covers jealousy, redemption, salvation, romance and despair . . .
and the message that it was dangerous to upset a Gorbals’ minister. The ballet, depressing as it is, was apparently
very popular during and just after the war, when I suppose it caught a
mood those of us who were not there have never experienced. Gillian Lynne joined the cast on stage at the end
and although it would not be be gallant to announce her age, but suffice
to say people 40 years her junior would struggle to keep up, she is Either side of the main event were two very different dances, the first La Fin du Jour, performed on a large art deco set designed by Ian Spurling. The piece is set to Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major with choreography by Kenneth Macmillan and a fine solo piano part from Jonathan Hggins. Set in the 1930s it is a ballet of gay young things with two lead couples, Nao Sakuma and Jamie Bond, Maureya Lebowitz and Mathias Dingman, with both ballerinas, who danced beautifully with some perfect synchronisation, becoming involved in some rather sensuous dances among a crowd of men from the company. The costumes were pastel and initially of the era
as you might have imagined at the Venice Lido of the 1930s, with the to
lead ballerinas remaining in bathing costumes as the men reappeared in
silk tails in the same pastel shades. The ballet was said to represent
the hedonistic lifestyle of the gay young things in the 30s with the
clouds of war gathering to change their lives forever. A dance
on the wild side: Elisha Willis as the Prostitute and Iain Mackay as the
Minister; Picture: Bill Cooper The final ballet, Flowers of the Forest, had no
such message although programme notes indicate the second dance,
Scottish Ballad, exquisitely danced by Elisha Willis and Mathias
Dingman, showed a young Benjamin Britten’s pacifist views, not that you
would know without being told. The opening with music by Malcolm Arnold, was
just fun, four Scottish dances with Nao Sakuma and Iain Mackay, Arancha
Baselga, Tzu-Chao Chou, Kiit Holder – the pair did a lovely drunken
Scotsmen dance – and Maureya Lebowitz. Choreographed by BRB Director David Bintley this
was a light hearted and upbeat end to a night of ballet which had
something for everyone from whimsy to murder, kilts to a sword dance
around drunken Scotsmens' legs. Music, from the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, under Paul
Murphy, as always was up to the high standard we have come to expect. It is a night of variety with some glorious
dancing, fine acting telling a dark tale in wartime Glasgow, and ending
with light hearted fun. To 11-10-14. Roger Clarke
08-10-14
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who
commits suicide in the river which gathers a crowd when her body is
recovered and the puritanical, humourless minister, danced by Iain
Mackay, arrives but fails to revive her and so looks to save her soul.
a remarkable lady.