Matthew Malthouse On … Dancing With Scissorhands

I’m originally from a musical theatre background. I trained at Arts Ed on the musical theatre course, and when I graduated did various musicals including Beauty and the Beast, Anything Goes at Drury Lane and a tour of On Your Toes. It was through Adam Cooper, who choreographed On Your Toes, that I first met Matthew Bourne. In the show I played a schoolkid, a stage manager, and then a transvestite. The first thing he said to me was “you’re very versatile!” A few years later I was working with him on Mary Poppins and he took me aside and asked if I’d like to work with his company – I was delighted.

New Adventures is a mix of classically trained dancers and people like myself, who’ve crossed over from different areas. When you go and watch the Royal Ballet, you’ll see the male soloist do three spins in the air, land on one leg, do another five spins and end in a perfect arabesque. Matthew’s style is much more raw, he focuses more on the narrative and the acting, which I think makes it much more engaging. And he manages to attract a much broader audience, beyond just your traditional dance fans.

The story of Edward Scissorhands is basically that of an outsider. It’s a great juxtaposition between this very gothic character with blades on his hands and the pastel suburban world into which he’s introduced. Along the way he falls in love and all he wants to do is hold the girl and touch her, but of course he can’t because of his hands. It has resonance for everyone because we’ve all felt like isolated at different times in our lives.

People ask me if the hands are really heavy, but in truth they’re not all that bad – roughly a bag of sugar each. What takes a lot of getting used to is the increased wingspan, suddenly you’re a metre wider than before. There have been a few slip-ups over the years. The worst was when I was doing the final scene one night, which requires me to stab another character. I misjudged the move and at first just thought the guy was doing a really good job of acting, but then I realised the blades were pushing into his chest and neck – the poor guy was in agony!

We’ve taken the show round the world. It’s amazing the responses you get in different countries. In Japan for example the audience was deathly silent, and you spend most of the show thinking ‘I’m so awful’. Then suddenly at the end they just erupt, and you end up doing about 12 curtain calls. Playing the Sydney Opera House was really special – we were the first British dance company to do so. For me it was like playing at Wembley, or, considering I’m Scottish, Hamden Park!

We did a six month tour of the States, and Johnny Depp came to see the show when we were in LA. He came backstage afterwards and spent a good couple of hours talking to us about his memories of making the film. Apparently he hadn’t seen it since just after he made it, so watching the stage show was a very nostalgic experience for him.

I’m not sure what’s up next for me. We’ve got a few more stops on the Scissorhands tour and then we’ll see what happens. There’s lots of stuff I’d love to do after this. I’d love to work with the amazing American choreographer Rob Ashford, and like Matthew I’d love to do another musical. But who knows in this business. You just have to dust yourself off and get along to the auditions and hope someone else is willing to take a chance on you.

Edward Scissorhands continues at Sadler’s Wells until 18 January 2009. All tickets booked before 25 December are subject to a 15% discount in response to the recent VAT cut.