MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE: THE NEXT GENERATION | FESTIVAL THEATRE, EDINBURGH
★★★★★
‘Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake retains its visceral power and ability to deliver a lasting emotional punch….’
Sinuous, scintillating and spectacular, New Adventures’ cygnets have come of age in this transfixing 30th Anniversary production of Matthew Bourne’s ground-breaking take on Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, the production that made ballet accessible to whole new audiences when it premiered at Sadler Wells Theatre in 1995.
And if this was the production that changed the dance world forever, so too it changed Bourne’s life, as well as that of many who have danced with his company in the intervening years. Now, with Swan Lake: The Next Generation, the stars of tomorrow are given their chance to shine, a challenge they embrace and more than live up to.
In this story of a love-starved prince living in the shadow of his coldly distant mother, The Queen, the magical physicality of Bourne’s storytelling is matched only by the darkness at the heart of the tale, and it is all the more beguiling for that. Twisted familial relationships, unrequited love, sexual longing, violence and attempted suicide lace the narrative, which, while remaining steeped in tradition, also highlights the fact that what were once considered the choreographer’s more subversive elements, still offer an opportunity to push boundaries and challenge today while also assuring the action builds to a powerfully moving finale that that holds the theatre spell-bound.
Leonardo McCorkindale’s slight, reluctant Prince, anxious and flinching, impresses in the range of his emotions as he flits from petulance, through boredom to the confusion of a sexual awakening that bears the comapny’s signature homoerotic motifs.
However, it is Rory Macleod who soars in this production, establishing himself as a major force in the world of dance with an instinctive performance that sees him juxtapose the tender caring nature of The Swan, with the cruel indifference of The Stranger. In these dual roles he is magnificent, bringing poised precision with occasional playful grace to the former, and a fiercely brooding, sensuousness to the latter.
Together, McCorkindale and Macleod are electric, whether enacting a ritual ‘mating’ dance that is simultaneously tender and threatening, or partaking in the more meaty, muscular encounters of The Prince and The Stranger. For Edinburgh dancer Macleod, whose dreams of joining New Adventures began when he saw Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella at this very theatre aged just 16, it’s a performance that confirms his star quality just three years on from making his debut with New Adventures as the Pink Gobstopper in The Nutcracker.
Elsewhere, Bryony Wood brings bubbly lightness to proceedings as The Girlfriend. Flirtatious and fluidly comedic, she is never funnier than in her irreverent appreciation of the ‘ballet within a ballet’ or when parodying breaches of audience etiquette only too recognisable to regular theatre-goers.
Glistening with sweat, the swan ‘chorus’ is a tightly drilled unit, yet each is uniquely individual in their portrayal. They explode onto the stage with an energy that never wains and are mesmerising. Katrina Lydon’s Queen, meanwhile, is sharply danced in a suitably steely performance.
With Tchaikovski’s strangely timeless score to build on, Bourne’s direction is immersive. His love of allowing his dancers to break the fourth wall, often with little more than a well-timed facial expression, invites the audience into his world and embraces them when they get there. Don’t miss out.
Three decades on, there is no doubt, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake remains a vital work that continues to deliver a lasting emotional punch.
Ends 12 April, tickets here.
Tour dates and tickets here.
