Connoisseurs adore The Sleeping Beauty. It boasts Tchaikovsky’s most symphonic ballet score and Petipa’s choreography is the pinnacle of Russian Imperial classicism, with its references to the French ancien régime. But dramatically, this balletic fairy tale of a princess condemned to a 100-year snooze can be a bit of a yawn. We wait 45 minutes for the heroine to appear and another act before the prince turns up, whose kiss breaks the evil Carabosse’s spell and results in instant matrimony, the wedding party taking up the entire third act. Step forward, Sir Matthew Bourne.
Dubbed “A Gothic Romance”, Bourne’s 2012 reimagining of The Sleeping Beauty for his New Adventures company returns to Sadler’s Wells for a long festive run. Festive and fanged, for Petipa’s fairies here become… vampires. It all starts innocently enough, with the christening of baby Princess Aurora, here a cheeky scamp of a puppet clambering up the curtains and driving the royal household to distraction. Bourne sets the initial action in 1890 (the year of the ballet’s premiere). Proceedings are interrupted by the familiar appearance of the dark fairy Carabosse (Paris Fitzpatrick) – a role once taken by male dancers, even in traditional stagings – but after she dies, her son Caradoc (also Fitzpatrick) continues his mother’s quest for vengeance.
Bourne avoids the weirdness of Aurora getting hitched to a complete stranger by having her fall in love with Leo, a humble gardener. When she pricks her finger on the black rose given to her by Caradoc on her 21st birthday and falls into a century-long sleep, Leo vows to be around in 100 years to wake her by submitting to the Lilac Fairy – here Count Lilac – who turns out to be a vampire and administers the necessary bite for eternal life as the Act 1 curtain falls. From the sharp intakes of breath, it was clear that a lot of the audience did not see this coming.
Jump cut to 2011 and selfie-snapping tourists gather outside the palace gates before Lilac leads Leo to Aurora’s bedchamber. However, his puckering up doesn’t quite go to plan, leaving Caradoc to play bridegroom, which solves the problem of the usually static Act 3, filling it with incident before the sweetest of denouements.
Bourne is a great storyteller and he packs his Sleeping Beauty with a punchy narrative. His choreography is witty and inventive, such as an Edwardian garden party complete with lawn tennis players dancing the famous Waltz. Yes, I miss some of the classic Petipa moments, such as the Rose Adagio, which now becomes a frisky duet for Leo and Aurora, but there are some neat Petipa references – from Beauty and from Swan Lake too – including the Tantrum fairy, whose spiky finger-pointing replicates the fairy Violente in the traditional ballet.
Ashley Shaw was a winsome Aurora on press night, charming, rebellious, lighter than air as she was flung around in a series of fast lifts. Andrew Monaghan made an appealing Leo, a doting puppy of a boyfriend, even if his character is not fleshed out much. Dominic North’s Count Lilac was suitably dashing, with angular footwork. But it was Paris Fitzpatrick who wowed the crowd with his dual Carabosse/Caradoc, haughty as the mother, suave as the son.
Lez Brotherston's sets are handsomely gothic, including a colossal full moon, gorgeously lit by Paule Constable. It’s easy to regret the absence of a live orchestra – a huge expense for a touring company with a heavy schedule like New Adventures – but at least the recorded soundtrack (cutting Tchaikovsky's score by about 30 minutes) was relayed at a less deafening level than I remember it last time round.
A vampire Beauty may not be the obvious candidate for a festive show but honestly, I’d go back and see this every night between now and Christmas. Ballet with bite.
