I had seen other versions of Swan Lake before, including the Mariinsky Ballet in 2014 and ABT last summer. But this one has the biggest twist: men play the swans! From what I read, Sir Matthew Bourne, the founder of his company New Adventures, did not create this idea in satire to the original ballet, but more as a re-imagined loved story; while he's fine with people calling it "the gay Swan Lake," that's not all the story is about. This version debuted with his old company (Adventures in Motion Pictures) in 1995, and while the show has toured around the world throughout the years, I think this is the first time the piece came to the Kennedy Center.
I wasn't sure how much I would like this version of such a classic ballet. I wasn't a huge fan on his take of Cinderella (I wrote about that last year), so I was a little wary at first. But in the end I thought it really worked! I especially liked the humor in this piece. For example, when the prince (James Lovell) wakes up, he has an entire entourage of servants (who walked like Barbies and soldiers) to help him get out of bed (which is huge, like a Princess and the Pea situation), brush his teeth for him, change his clothes, etc. And the girlfriend character (Carrie Willis, who looks just like Heather Graham) was hysterical, acting completely inappropriate with the queen mother (Nicole Kabera) and making a scene in public.
I loved all of these black outfits, from the sparkles and lace to the velvet jumpsuit and sheer tops! Image found here.
And the modern costumes were so fun that I honestly didn't even miss the tutus (and certainly not those silly feather head-pieces from the traditional Swan Lake). The maids' pillbox hats and bumper bangs were to die for, and all of the different outfits from the guests at the royal ball made quite the 'cohesive collection' as Tim Gunn would say (my friend said this and I told her, "That's definitely going in the blog!"). And while the swans' trousers were made of fine loops of string (almost like a flapper dress) rather than feathers, they still had the effect of feathers.
The dancing itself of course was amazing. The swan dancers have to be so athletic! They were sweating so much on stage. I was especially impressed by Max Westwell, who played the main swan. Perhaps it may have been a little less graceful with men instead of women, but I still really liked it, especially when they used their arms to mimic swans' wings or necks (they even hissed like swans!). Some of the dances felt a little nostalgic for The Nutcracker, like the Spanish dance at the ball or some of the men dancing like the Russian dance from the other beloved ballet. But Tchaikovsky wrote the music for Swan Lake first, so I guess he borrowed some of his own ideas for the later ballet.
The other swans attack the prince, and then the main swan swoops in to save him. Image found here.
This piece did leave me with many questions though, both about the story itself and my perspective of it:
Is the swan real? There are many points when the prince is dancing with the male swan, but then the latter disappears, leaving the prince alone and a bit crazy.
In the show I saw, Lovell and Westwell have very different body types. Were they cast this way on purpose, the prince being small and meek while the swan is strong and ultra-masculine? And if the dancers had been of the same body type, would I have interpreted the relationship between the two characters differently?
I have been watching Sex Education on Netflix, and Westwell reminded me so much of the character Adam Groff (played by Connor Swindells), the tough guy in high school who is secretly gay. I couldn't help thinking of the resemblance the entire time I watched the performance! So did that impact how I viewed that character in this ballet?
Why does the role of the private secretary (Jack Jones) exist? I feel like his only purpose is the escort the queen and reel-in the girlfriend character.
The prince goes a little insane at the Royal Ball (he pulls a gun out!) and he's taken to a psych ward where the nurses all wear masks to look like his mother. At first I thought this was a Shutter Island experience, like none of this had been real. But then he ends up in his bedroom and the queen really is his mom (not just a nurse), so I wasn't really sure what was going on. Was there some sort of Oedipus complex happening, or did the prince just have mommy issues?
Does the prince die of suicide? A broken heart?
I was definitely impressed by this show and really appreciated all the artistic changes that were made to revamp this old classic. A ten out of ten for sure!
Here's a video so you can (sort of) feel like you were there!
After the show, there was a party in the Russian Lounge inside the Kennedy Center, which I had never been to before. It's a beautiful space upstairs with a built-in bar where we could enjoy sparkling cider and some bubbly. AND we got to hear from some of the dancers! Willis, Westwell, Kabera, and Jones spoke about their experiences in the show, when they decided they wanted to be dancers, etc. It felt like we had backstage passes to an awesome concert! It was so cool; I hope I get to go to one of these meet-and-greets again!
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete