After selling out Shanghai Culture Square two years ago with his iconic mostly-male adaptation of Swan Lake, Matthew Bourne returns with yet another unique and audacious interpretation of a classic.
While searching for more ideas to work their magic, Bourne and partner Lez Brotherston had their eyes on Sleeping Beauty after watching a performance by the Royal Ballet.
“We saw that the ballerinas were wearing tutus at the beginning of the show, but that their costumes hadn’t changed a bit when the story supposedly moves [forward] a hundred years,” Brotherston recalls.
A Tony and Olivier Award winner, Brotherston has forged a dynamic partnership with Bourne, impressing audiences with striking costumes like the impressive fluffy pants that the male swans wore in Swan Lake.
Diving deeper into the idea, Brotherston and Bourne found the original story’s definition of true love to be dubious.
“The problem is that a complete stranger finds a girl in the forest and somehow falls in love with her,” Brotherston says. “When he kisses her, she wakes up and falls in love with him. This makes absolutely no sense.”
With these issues in mind, Bourne resolved the dilemma by injecting the idea of undying love. Set in the 1890s at the time when Tchaikovsky produced the original ballet, Bourne’s version of Sleeping Beauty opens with the long-awaited birth of Princess Aurora into the royal family.
However, after being christened by six fairies, a powerful evil fairy named Carabosse arrives to cast a vengeful spell on the newborn. But Carabosse's death means that the family disregards the effects of the spell.
As Aurora grows older, she falls for a gardener named Leo, but the young couple decide to keep their relationship secret.
Things take a turn for the worse when Carabosse’s son Caradoc unexpectedly shows up to cast a spell on the castle for 100 years. Leo is determined to save Aurora, who is trapped inside.
Seemingly setting the stage for an ending where true love conquers all and evil is defeated, Sleeping Beauty adds another tragic twist in which Leo is bitten by a fairy and gains eternal life.
With this new narrative, Brotherston revels in the opportunity for some creative wardrobe choices. The minute the fairies slide onto stage in their garb, it feels like the opening of a vintage gothic fashion show, full of shredded dresses and edgy accoutrements.
When a spellbound Aurora walks into her wedding with Caradoc, she wears a striking dress reminiscent of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride.
However, Brotherston points to a different source for his inspiration: “I went to the Alexander McQueen exhibition and there was a wedding dress that I thought was beautiful and would be great for dance,” he explains.
“Then I received a copy of McQueen’s biography, where he mentioned that the dress was ‘inspired by a few things including Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake.’ It’s really a funny coincidence that I like his work and he appreciated mine as well.”
Since its 2012 debut, Sleeping Beauty: A Gothic Romance has set box office records around the world. With tickets going fast for its inaugural China tour that stops off in Shanghai (Aug 16-28 @ Shanghai Culture Square) and Beijing (Sep 1-4 @ Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center), there’s even talk that Brotherston and Bourne will be attending the Shanghai premiere.
Shanghai: Aug 16-28, 7.15pm (2pm matinees on weekends), RMB80-780. Shanghai Culture Square, tickets.
Beijing: Sep 1-4, 7.30pm (with 2pm weekend matinees), RMB99-1,500. Beijing Tianqiao Performing Arts Center.
Photos by Johan Persson
For more, check out our interview with Matthew Bourne.
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