Matthew Bourne
For his 1997 reimagining of Cinderella, Bourne invoked the Victorian and Edwardian eras by disseminating certain books and novels from those time periods amongst the production's cast members.
His adaptations of Sleeping Beauty, Edward Scissorhands, The Red Shoes, Dorian Gray, and Lord of the Flies added new dimensions to these near-ubiquitous stories.
[6][7] He worked as a filing clerk at the BBC and as an usher at The National Theatre for four years after graduating from William Fitt and Sir George Monoux School in Walthamstow, London.
In 1992, he placed the Christmas Eve scene of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker in a Victorian orphanage reminiscent of a Charles Dickens novel.
[11] Bourne's New Adventure's troupe consists of both ballet and modern dancers who perform intricate choreography that stems from the character's actions and movements.
Somehow, Clara's Nutcracker doll transforms into a young man who leads her on a journey to Sweetieland, a fictional location where sweets and confectionary represent pleasure and desire.
In this world, earlier characters reappear as sweets in a visually striking setting created by Anthony Ward, combining elements of the graphic novel with surreal, vibrant colors.
The performance references the Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie and Les Patineurs to form a tableau reminiscent of The Nutcracker's original choreographers, Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.
Drawing inspiration from Tchaikovsky's music and nature, Bourne portrayed swans as large, aggressive, and powerful creatures, danced by bare-chested men wearing knee-length shorts made of shredded silk resembling feathers.
The narrative revolves around Luca, a drifter who finds himself in a love triangle with Lana, the wife of a local garage owner, and Angelo, a young man grappling with his identity in the town's hypermasculine environment.
Larger productions use a flexible multi-tier set construction incorporating a live orchestra and billboard screens, allowing for a seamless transition between scenes and creating a thrust stage.
The choreography is deeply integrated into the storytelling, with initial group numbers establishing the setting, before individual interactions become the narrative's driving force.
In the spirit of classic melodrama, the narrative threads of lust, deceit, and violence intertwine, leading to a second act dominated by themes of guilt and revenge.
The production's duality mirrors the character of Luca, who compellingly embodies multiple aspects of the narrative's nuanced exploration of desire and identity.
Bourne's unique approach involved casting each character multiple times, concurrently revealing different and sometimes contradictory aspects of their personalities.
Bourne attests that their adaptation preserves most of Wilde's original work, particularly the novel's central theme of a handsome young man's internal corruption.
[10] In his adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray, Bourne changes Sybil Vane to a male ballet dancer called Cyril and he rewrites Lord Henry as a female magazine editor who wields considerable power.
Ultimately, rather than destroy the painting like he does in Wilde's original, Bourne's contemporary Dorian Grey stabs his doppelgänger in front of the paparazzi.
The Theatre Royal approached the Bourne's New Adventures charitable arm, ReBourne,[30][31] to stage the show with Scottish Arts Council funding [32] and a cast including some young men who had never danced before.
And Terry Davies [page needed] incorporated Bernard Herrmann's more obscure soundtracks to create an atmospheric score performed by New Adventures' 16-piece orchestra conducted by Brett Morris.
[43] During rehearsals Bourne repeatedly rewrote Shakespeare's plot and scenario, eventually settling for a gender-segregated institution akin to a psychiatric hospital.
For example, Tybalt, a prison guard, sexually assaults Juliet and the ballet's choreography uses rigidly synchronised motions to underscore its character's incarceration.
[47] Bourne subtitled the piece Intoxicated Tales from Darkest Soho, and set it in a smokey 1930s London pub called The Midnight Bell.
The piece's most notable character arcs and performances were Bryony Wood's portrayal of a young prostitute, Michela Meazza's depiction of Miss Roach, the lonesome spinster and George Harvey Bone, the deranged killer played by Richard Winsor.
[51] On the iconic appeal of Swan Lake at the time, The New Yorker said, 'what was important about the gender switch was that it made this old love story romantic again, by making it seem dangerous.
[55] Productions include The Red Shoes (ballet), The Car Man (Bourne) (based on Bizet's Carmen) and Edward Scissorhands (dance) among many others.
The company has reimagined many traditional Tchaikovsky ballets, such as The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, placing them in a new, cinematic context to enliven their potential for storytelling for a modern audience.
Feeling the need to be closer to his productions and seeking room to experiment and work with a smaller team, Bourne and AMP's co-director Katherine Doré eventually made the decision to split.
This enabled Bourne and the company to scale down and create low budget shows, working in close collaboration with the dancers and artists who contribute hugely to his creative process.
[56] Esteemed dance critic Judith Mackrell notes, 'there were moments in his career when Bourne could easily have let himself become a commercial commodity and squandered his talent.
