This is not a sparkling fairy tale for children but a passionate cinematic tale of brief encounters and dancing like there is no tomorrow because at any time a bomb may mean there is no tomorrow.
Matthew Bourne's Cinderella is both a tribute to the London of the 1940s with locations such as Oxford Circus Underground, Paddington Station, the Thames Embankment and Soho's ill-fated Cafe de Paris recreated in Lez Brotherston's impressive art deco sets, and to the movies of that era.
Brief Encounter
The prominent tone is a silver screen monochrome, Michela Meazza's elegantly evil stepmother is Joan Crawford like and such classics as A Matter Of Life And Death and Brief Encounter are influences.
The three-act ballet is framed by newsreels and the recorded orchestra are presented in cinema style surround sound. The explosions sound unnervingly realistic.
Prokofiev
The starting point may have been Frederick Ashton's conventional fairy tale ballet but the only key element Bourne has kept from that is Sergei Prokofiev's romantic music.
Bourne's choreography has a sexy physicality, here as much influenced by jive as classic ballet and reveals flashes of grotesque humour.
Fred Astaire
In his vision the fairy godmother becomes a silver haired male hoofer with Fred Astaire moves who takes Cinders to the dance in a motorcycle and sidecar; the prince is a wounded airman who meets prostitutes and rent boys during his quest with the slipper; and Cinderella's dysfunctional family includes a step-brother with a foot fetish.
The scene in which the victims of the bomb that fell upon the Cafe de Paris are brought back to vivacious, dancing life by the fairy godfather/angel turning back time is magical.
Christopher Marney (The Angel), Sam Archer (Harry the pilot) and Kerry Biggin (Cinderella) were very good indeed in the three lead roles.
Bourne doesn't do traditional but he does do thrilling, daring and romantic and his productions connect with the public, as evidenced by a full house at the Birmingham Hippodrome on Press night.
This is a revised version of his Cinderella first performed in 1997 but revived and reconfigured to mark the 70th anniversary of the Blitz which devastated large areas of London.
Tour
Following the performances at Sadlers Wells in London during the 2010 festive season, Matthew Bourne's Cinderella tours the UK and the Netherlands during 2011 before major European festival dates in the summer.
The tour dates include: Milton Keynes Theatre (February 22 to February 26); New Victoria Theatre, Woking (March 1 to March 5); Alhambra, Bradford (March 8 to March 12); Theatre Royal, Norwich (March 22 to March 26); Royal Theatre Carre, Amsterdam (March 30 to April 3); Nieuwe Luxor Theatre, Rotterdam (April 6 to April 10); Empire, Liverpool (April 26 to April 30); New Wimbledon Theatre, London (May 3 to May 7); New Theatre, Oxford (May 10 to May 14); Hippodrome, Bristol (May 17 to May 21); Lyceum, Sheffield (May 24 to May 28).
It will also be performed at the Ravenna Festival in Italy during early June and at the Chekhov International Theatre Festival in Moscow during late June and early July.
Leon Burakowski - A British journalist based in central England with 28 years experience in newspapers. Writes about travel, theatre, technology, history, ...
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