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Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty is, in a word, gorgeous. Lez Brotherston's design is sumptuous and decadent, moving from 1890 through to 'last night', stopping briefly to pick up Anne Rice on the way.
At the beginning of the show the baby Aurora is a wilful and mischievous baby and is played by a puppet, a smart and utterly charming puppet that climbs the curtains and creates general mayhem. In her crib she is blessed and given gifts by the fairies and all is well until Carabosse appears. Carabosse, scorned by Aurora's parents, curses the child and thus far the story is familiar. We then move on to 1911 and Aurora is 16 years old, still wilful, she scoots about the garden party barefoot and can only think of finding time to be alone with her lover, Leo the Royal gardener. Also at this party is Caradoc, son of Carabosse. Tall, dark and enigmatic he presents Aurora with a black rose, she pricks her finger and falls into a 100 year sleep. How do we ensure that Aurora's true love is still around to save her in 100 years? We make him into a vampire of course!
It may seem – on the face of it – a bizarre interpretation of the Sleeping Beauty story, but for me it worked and worked beautifully. The stunning visuals connect with Tchaikovsky's soaring music to create a magnificent feast. I can't pretend to know much about the technicalities of ballet, I must rely on my own purely emotional response, but I do understand theatricality and this has it in unashamed abundance.
This closes in London at the end of the week and I urge you to catch it on tour, I will be.
