Showing @ Festival Theatre, Edinburgh until Sat 26 Apr @ times vary (on tour)
Matthew Bourne‘s wonderfully imaginative reinvention of the classic ballet with all-male swans and principles, looks far less daring and transgressive now than when it did at its 1995 world premiere at Sadler’s Wells. Bourne’s shirtless dancers clad in swan’s wing breeches has made his reworking a firm favourite with balletomanes.
The young prince is torn between the ditzy Chelsy Davy/Lady Diana blonde and his homosexuality, both of which his rapacious mother disapproves. He seeks solace in some low dive (not quite Boujis) inhabited by the Kray twins, Mandy Rice Davies and Quentin Crisp. The witty references in the first half give way to real and moving pathos in the second.
Although the shock of the boy-on-boy dancing has dissipated, the show unquestionably works and even improves on the original. Bourne has commented that masculine swans make complete sense in that their strength and enormous wingspan suggest a male dancer more readily than a ballerina.
The Hollywood Gothic meets Albert Speer set and Dior-style costumes by Lez Brotherston are as much a part of this Swan Lake as Bourne’s sexy choreography and direction. Combined with the pounding Tchaikovsky score – the inspiration of many a Hollywood composer – it’s not surprising that the production has won over 30 international awards, including three Tonys.
The ball scene of limos, red carpets and paparazzi gives way to hedonistic revellers in revenge dresses and jewelled eye-patches. It’s a real delight; what you might call Bourne’s supremacy! This Swan Lake is more contemporary dance/theatre than strictly ballet (the woman are never en pointe). Then the gatecrashing lead swan (a mesmerising Jonathan Ollivier) brings the whole Oedipal complex crashing down. Will the swans rescue or devour the prince?
Created nearly 20 years ago, is there a danger that Bourne’s ballet looks dated? The celebrity factor is more relevant than ever but in post-Aids, equal marriage 2014, the tortured gay man searching for love looks a tad stale. But the ballet still has the power to delight and move and, let’s face it, who needs tutus?