Sleeping Beauty

The Alhambra

THE Alhambra theatre was once again packed out last night for another of Matthew Bourne’s modern takes on ballet.

After acclaimed versions of Swan Lake, Lord Of The Flies and Edward Scissorhands wowed crowds at the theatre, Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty received a similarly rapturous response on the first night of a five night run in Bradford last night, mixing humour, romance, horror and spellbinding dance performances.

Although there were some alterations to the fairy tale, that was turned into a ballet by Tchaikovsky and choreographer, Marius Petipa, in 1890, the plot is instantly familiar.

A king and queen, unable to have a child of their own, are granted a baby girl, Aurora, by dark fairy Carabosse. She attempts to take the child as a baby, but is thwarted by Aurora’s guardian fairies. Years later Carabosse’s son, Caradoc, manages to achieve what his mother could not, placing a curse on Aurora shortly after she has fallen in love with royal gamekeeper Leo.

A hundred years later, Leo returns to save Aurora before she falls victim to Caradoc permanently.

Changing the object of Aurora’s affections from a heroic prince to a humble servant adds a new twist to the story, arguably making it more romantic, a tale of star crossed lovers rather than a royal partnership.

And turning the fairies into almost vampyric creatures rather than the twee fairy godmothers from the Disney movie, adds plenty of gothic imagery.

The sets are inventive and add to the gothic romance Bourne is aiming for with his version of the ballet.

And the performances on Tuesday’s opening night was great, with Ashley Shaw as Aurora and Dominic North as Leo being particularly impressive as the would be lovers in several astounding and difficult dances.

Liam Mower was particularly impressive as Caradoc, bringing plenty of gothic menace as the dark fairy, as was Count Lilac, as his “good” counterpart dedicated to protecting Aurora.

Another surprising show stealer was the impressive puppet used for the baby Aurora. A working rod puppet, required to take part in dance routines and interact with the spritely performers, could well have been a disaster, but instead brings humorous and memorable moments to the ballet.

Sleeping Beauty perfectly mixes the familiar parts of the fairy tale, classic ballet and Disney movie, but adds more than enough to make it stand out from traditional performances of the story.

Runs until Saturday

Chris Young