- main
- forum
- criticaldance
- features
- reviews
- interviews
- links
- gallery
- whoweare
- search
Subscribe to the monthly for free!
|
![]() |
Northern Ballet Theatre - 'A Midsummer Night's
Dream'
by Cassandra
March 17, 2004 --
Sadler's Wells, London
Shakespeare knew exactly where
his "Midsummer Night's Dream" took place -- in a wood outside
Athens. Just where you would expect to find that mythological Athenian
hero Theseus and his Amazonian love Hippolyta. Except, shouldn't it be
an olive grove? And what wrong turning caused those very English mechanicals
to appear on the scene? Modern stage directors solve these little inconsistencies
by locating the play anywhere that takes their fancy and David Nixon has
chosen the most familiar milieu he knows for his "A Midsummer Night's
Dream": a touring ballet company where the cast all become dancers
or stagehands.
Theseus (Hironao Takahashi) is the Artistic Director about to marry his
prima ballerina (Desire Samaai), and as the ballet opens, Robin Puck,
the ballet master, is finishing his class. The following rehearsal of
"Romeo and Juliet," complete with Prokofiev's music, breaks
down into a real life brawl between Demetrius and Lysander over their
love object, Hermia. Theseus loses his temper in a torrent of Japanese
and his day goes from bad to worse when he tells Hippolyta she won't be
dancing Juliet. She isn't ready to exchange dance for domesticity, and
as he tries to console her in a pas de deux, her mood changes from misery
to ecstasy and back to anger again.
In the next scene, the company boards a train at Kings Cross station en
route to their next engagement. Poor unloved Helena (Pippa Moore) pursues
her former lover, Demetrius, who now only has eyes for Hermia, and a lovesick
Nick Bottom, the company carpenter, casts loving glances at Hippolyta.
On board the train everyone is either pursuing or falling out with everyone
else. It's midsummer night and as the train heads north Theseus has a
dream…
In the second act we fly into the realms of sexual symbolism with a giant
rocket -- with what appears to be a furry phallus attached to an angel's
wing on top, poised to pierce the retina of an enormous eye. Theseus has
become Oberon, master and manipulator of all those troublesome dancers
that are now under his control with Puck doing his bidding. The lovers
descend to the stage in beds previously suspended in mid-air and resume
their muddled shenanigans. Puck tries to sort them out and makes things
worse.
In the mechanicals' play, Bottom
performs as Pyramus, complete with bulging codpiece, opposite the camp
Wardrobe Master in drag as Thisbe. Theseus sees a chance to humiliate
Hippolyta/Titania when a donkey's head is lowered on a cloud. With Bottom
transformed and Titania obviously captivated with the sexual possibilities
of his tail, the ballet follows a more familiar course with a small corps
of fairies punctuating the action with the fast steps that Mendelssohn's
score dictates. Takahashi performs a thrilling scherzo and after Puck
has solved the problem of the lovers, Oberon and Titania are reunited
in a romantic pas de deux.
The third act opens in Edinburgh's Waverley Station with the magic of
midsummer's night lingering in the air. Hippolyta has accepted her new
life without dance and Helena and Demetrius are in love again. Everything
has changed. Could all this be down to their enigmatic ballet master Robin
Puck who enigmatically dances atop the train?
The final scene shows the dancers taking their calls after "Romeo
and Juliet," which had been danced by Hermia and Demetrius. The dancers
gather on stage to celebrate the future unions of the three couples, and
the entire company jives the night away. Robin Puck steps forward and
delivers the play's final speech: a tying up of loose ends.
This was a wonderful version of a very familiar ballet/play. Much of the
first act was movement rather than dance, and the final scene at the party
was more like the finale of a musical than the closing moments of a ballet
-- but this is unimportant, as the sheer originality and vigour of this
production gives a real "feel good" quality to the work from
beginning to end. The choreography has some wonderful moments full of
originality and humour, especially the amazing double work for the initially
mis-matched Helena and Demetrius. The tiny Ms. Moore danced fearlessly
with Christopher Hinton-Lewis as she was thrown into the air in gasp-inducing
movements. This was a girl who threw herself into her role in more ways
than one!
The sets are breathtaking: the best sets I've seen on a ballet stage in
years, and designer Duncan Hayler is to be congratulated on his sheer
ingenuity as a ballet studio changes into a train station and a station
into a theatre -- all clever stuff. The 40's costumes by Patricia Doyle
with Dior style "new look" dresses and large picture hats, put
me a little in mind of the film "The Red Shoes," where another
ballet company was seen embarking on a train journey. The music came as
a bit of a shock as I wasn't expecting Brahms in the last act, but then
Mendelssohn's incidental music doesn't quite stretch to three acts, and
even allowing for those snippets of Prokofiev, there's a lot of dancing
that needs accompaniment.
It's rare now for a choreographer to even think of tackling a new three
act ballet, and I'm immensely happy that there’s at least one around who
is able to do so and to thoroughly succeed.
Edited by Lori Ibay
Please join the discussion
in our forum.
|
