“A fairy-tale with a twist.”
An unlikely paring of Aurora and vampires – Mathew Bourne’s sleeping beauty gives gothic romance a new meaning. This piece is a wonderful combination of many variations of the Sleeping Beauty tale, set to Tchaikovsky’s music with vampires thrown in! This story is a breath of fresh-air as Mathew Bourne’s interpretation allows Aurora to escape the old fashioned tale of marrying the first man she kisses – to having a genuine love story with hunky palace groundskeeper Leo (Stepan Murray).
We are introduced to the story by a projection of the introductory lines on the curtain -this was a nice touch that immediately brought back nostalgic memories of Walt Disney’s version – and was a very useful tool in providing a narrative to a piece with no speaking. When we are introduced to baby Aurora – who even at this age is a feisty one. The slightly creepy baby puppet moves across the stage and gets herself into some situations – providing the audience with some visual comedy. Later, Aurora is a young, free spirited girl and Cordelia Braithwaite’s dancing portrayed this beautifully and her dance sequences with the malevolent Caradoc (Ben Brown) show the simultaneous hate and attraction between the two.
The choreography was of particular note as the dancers did an amazing job of portraying emotion and distracting the audience from set changes – multiple times the set changed and I didn’t notice until afterward as I was so enraptured by the dancing on stage. This piece has a bit of everything due to its time jumps, the first one 21 years and the second after the 100 year sleep (also the interval) – this allows Bourne to explore more sets and dance styles and allows us to enjoy the difference between the first and second half. Although the second half is harder to follow than the former as its less plot – more dancing through the woods on a quest to find and wake Aurora.
Now…. The vampires are a nice touch, that make sense as how else would Leo still be around after 100 years to wake her with true love’s kiss? To encompass this into the plot – we have the added character of Count Lilac (Dominic North) – a vampire fairy king who turns gardener Leo into a vampire so he can wake Aurora when the time comes.
The overall effect of the performance was remarkable from the beautiful set and effects, great choreography and visual humour. It was great to see the mix of an improved contemporary tale combined with classical ballet.
Mathew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty is currently on it’s 10th anniversary tour and is showing at he Liverpool’s Empire until March 11th.