BWW Reviews: MATTHEW BOURNE'S CINDERELLA , New Wimbledon Theatre, May 3 2011

Cinderella is usually the only one on her knees in smouldering ashes, desperate to escape to a world characterised by love not hate. Matthew Bourne takes Sergei Prokofiev's soaring score and imagines not just Cinderella, but a whole nation on its knees in the ashes of The Blitz, with the weaponry of hate raining down on Londoners scurrying to find shelter on the platforms of tube stations or in the arms of lovers. A sense of time sliding away and away and away suffuses every scene - love had to be found and found quickly. With the help of Lez Brotherston's spectacular sets and beautifully tailored costumes, it's soon difficult to recall that the fairytale of Cinderella is anything other than a wartime film (probably starring David Niven and Vivien Leigh).

Bourne calls his productions "shows" and that's not a bad descriptor, because they're not musicals - no singing - and they're not ballets - movement, personality and acting are at least as important as dance; there's nothing en pointe and few lifts outside the setpieces. Bourne demands that his dancer-actors tell their stories - indeed, there are times when I was grateful that nobody was singing, as I was trying to follow plots and sub-plots breaking out all over the stage in a collage of comings and goings.

The dancers are thrilling to watch, with balance that a Premier League footballer would give a cruciate ligament for and they provide a timely post-Royal Wedding reminder of the true meaning of the word "poise". Kerry Biggin and Sam Archer, as the eponymous girl and her pilot lover, fill the theatre with their overpowering desire to be re-united, while Madelaine Brennan's step-mother is vampishly venomous. Amongst so many gifted performers, Christopher Marney stands out as the angel who teases, tempts and eventually takes Cinderella to her pilot, as she dreams of the life she might just secure. He closes the show with a wonderful touch that underlines Bourne's belief that the story told is merely one of many at a time when life could be very short indeed.

The audience was about 90% female for the performance I saw - if you had suggested to me a couple of years ago that I would be delighted to be missing a Champions League semi-final to watch contemporary dance, I wouldn't have believed you. So female dance fans, take your boyfriend, husband, son and father - I promise you that he'll thank you! 

Matthew Bourne's Cinderella is at The New Wimbledon Theatre until Saturday 7 May and on tour.       

 

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