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by
大象传媒 South Yorkshire's
Margaret Burgin |
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Having seen the Crucible's excellent production of A Midsummer Night's
Dream last Autumn, the Shakespearean story was still very fresh in
my mind.
This ballet though, is a rather different animal. It takes the basic
story of the Shakespeare play, sets it to Mendelssohn and Brahms,
and turns it into something rather unusual.
The
story is centred around a ballet company in the '40s, Demetrius,
Lysander, Helena and Hermia are all dancers and the 'dream' itself
takes place, not in the woods, but on a train journey on midsummer's
night.
The ballet is set in a manner reminiscent of a strawberry shortcake,
with two layers of plain but wholesome monochrome on the outside
and a sumptuous filling full of flavour and colour.
Act
One takes place in black and white, with the dancers in '40s costume
in a rehearsal studio which miraculously metamorphoses into a train.
The dream in Act Two is full of humour and colour with a spectacular
and unusual set, and the piece is resolved in Act Three in black
and white.
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| The
mixed-up lovers |
There
is a great deal of drama in this, but there is also some spectacular
dancing and choreography, particularly in the sequences between
the mixed-up lovers in Act Two.
The Shakespeare play is a comedy and there was plenty of laughter
in the audience. Jonathan Ollivier as Lysander, and Keiko Amemori
as Hermia deserved particular praise on the night that I went along.
I always find it hard to convince people who never go to ballet
that it can be really funny, but anyone who watched Pippa Moore's
wonderful comic performance as a lovesick Helena, or Adam Temple's
Bottom, would be hard pressed not to laugh out loud.
The
best thing about this production, is that it's just the kind of
thing to bring in new audiences for the ballet.
Many of the traditional ballet audience was there, but I did talk
to two 16-year-olds after the performance, neither of whom dance
themselves, and they thoroughly enjoyed it.
They liked it because it was about lovesick couples, because it
was funny, and because the sets and costumes were fresh, inventive
and unusual.
But above all, in spite of themselves, they liked it because there
really is nothing quite like watching some breathtaking dance from
a couple like Ollivier and Amemori.
-
Margaret Burgin
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