Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty

Synopsis

Perrault's timeless fairy tale, about a young girl cursed to sleep for one hundred years, was turned into a legendary ballet by choreographer, Marius Petipa, in 1890. Bourne takes this as his starting point, setting the Christening of Aurora, the story's heroine, in the year of the ballets first performance; the height of the Fin-de-Siecle period when fairies, vampires and decadent opulence fed the gothic imagination. As Aurora grows into a young woman, we move forwards in time to the more rigid, uptight Edwardian era; a mythical golden age of long summer afternoons, croquet on the lawn and new dance crazes. Years later, awakening from her century long slumber, Aurora finds herself in the modern day; a world more mysterious and wonderful than any Fairy story! Matthew Bourne's haunting new scenario is a gothic tale for all ages; the traditional tale of good vs. evil and rebirth is turned upside-down, creating a supernatural love story, across the decades, that even the passage of time itself cannot hinder.

Our Review:

14 December 2012

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty is an amalgamation of old and new, a mixture of modern moves and a 19th century score that works to a large extent, but not entirely. Set in a number of periods – 1890, when protagonist and kidnap victim Aurora is but a child (portrayed by a slightly creepy puppet), 1911, when she is a vibrant 21-year-old, 2011, when her rescue occurs, and 'last night', at her wedding.

Bourne’s changes spice up the story and the score to strong effect. He changes the prince to a gamekeeper, Leo, adds vampires where there were none before and incorporates the tall, dark-haired Caradoc, son of evil fairy Carabosse, who does not exist in the original fairytale. Yes, it’s all a bit Twilight, perhaps deliberately so, but it works well as a dramatic device, making sense of the long time between Aurora’s sleep and her rescue, and making it interesting to a less specialist audience.

The parts of Carabosse and Caradoc are pl...

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Latest User Review

ILs - 24 February 2013:

Forgot to mention the terrible over amplified recorded score. Really some one in the sound production department of this touring production needs to turn the volume down as the play back of a beautiful score is so loud the sound is distorted coming out of all those speakers. Really not good enough considering the amount of money paid for a ticket to have such a bad sound system....

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