{"id":1706,"date":"2019-01-22T12:26:27","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T12:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1706"},"modified":"2019-03-10T19:29:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-10T19:29:50","slug":"propwatch-the-suicide-note-in-matthew-bournes-swan-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2019\/01\/propwatch-the-suicide-note-in-matthew-bournes-swan-lake.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the suicide note in Matthew Bourne\u2019s Swan Lake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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There aren\u2019t many props in dance. Some may intrude on\nclassical ballet, though only the most trad production will drag out the shiny swords\nand goblets. Otherwise, anything that gets in the way of bodies is considered\nclutter, and faces the full Marie Kondo. After all, there\u2019s a reason those\ntights and tutus don\u2019t have pockets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s not the case in Matthew Bourne\u2019s production of Swan Lake<\/a> <\/em>for New Adventures \u2013 first seen in 1995, and now retuned and sharpened to deliver one emotional slap after another. Routine classical productions sometimes forget to ask why Tchaikovsky\u2019s heartsore ballet is so compulsive. Why does it matter? The triumph of Bourne\u2019s production was that he thought about this, and found in answer in the hero\u2019s aching heart. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the bare-chested, ash-and-charcoal daubed male Swan has become the poster image of Bourne\u2019s version, an aubergine-grabbing icon of modern dance, it\u2019s really the prince\u2019s tale \u2013 the story of a young man keening to be loved. There\u2019s no love in the regimented court, with its iceberg-chill white surfaces and stiff-backed protocol. There\u2019s certainly none from his mother the Queen, for whom touch produces a shudder and a cuddle is terra incognita. (Even Nicole Kabera\u2019s cheekbones seem weaponised, and her shoulder squirm from her lovelorn boy.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, the prince wanders off into the night, awash\nwith misery and vodka, and after a brawl in a joylessly swanky bar, finds\nhimself in the royal park, ready to end it all. Sitting on a park bench in his\nlongjohns, he scribbles a note, sticks it on a nearby lamppost, prepares to hurl\nhimself into the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s something about that pale, forlorn sheet of paper \u2013 scrawled with unhappy words that we can only imagine, skewered for the world to find \u2013 that catches my heart. Watching the Petipa-Ivanov Swan Lake <\/em>on the classical stage, I\u2019m usually emotionally invested in Odette<\/a>, the swan-princess, whose helpless transformation makes the ballerina\u2019s art a journey into extremis. But it\u2019s the New Adventures prince who is spun around by every successive emotion \u2013 stiff-backed with effort, fumbling with nerves, blindsided by desire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And then the swans appear \u2013 topless, reckless,\nthrillingly unbiddable. And then the Swan, who is all that and more. Matthew Ball,\nbriefly escaped from the gilded aviary of the Royal Ballet, makes a finely-honed\ncreature \u2013 wild, wary, unpredictable, keeping the prince at bay with scything\narms before trustingly nestling a head or wing. Their swooping, swivelling duet\nis mesmerising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the prince, love \u2013 however species-inappropriate \u2013 is a reason to live. In his dead-eyed royal routine, he\u2019s honoured but not valued. He receives curtsies rather than cuddles. He\u2019s surrounded by people who want him to be well-bred, not well fit. It\u2019s pretty desolate. Dominic North, a mainstay of New Adventures, is superbly heartfelt in the role, his round eyes and dogged profile brimming with unspoken sorrows. No wonder, when dawn breaks and the swans must disappear, he\u2019s giddy with delight. The end of the first act is pure Gene Kelly \u2013 he capers in the early light, startles an old lady who ignores the \u2018Do not feed the swans\u2019 sign (a lovely little defiance that chimes with the prince\u2019s own transgressive desire). And he rips that unneeded suicide note and bins it. It\u2019s joyous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post-pond delirium doesn\u2019t last. After the interval, the prince will be tormented by a Swan-doppelganger who crashes a palace party (Ball gives his best dirty hips and hornbag sneer, but the gatecrasher\u2019s leather trousers could perhaps be retired \u2013 they\u2019re more sexpest than sexbomb). A gun will be raised. Then another. The prince is considered a suitable case for treatment, and the last act \u2013 the return of the swans \u2013 is wrenching. As Paule Constable<\/a> (whose exquisite lighting adds intent to the revival) noted when we spoke last year, the production speaks to our current mental health crisis among young men. Bourne accesses anguish in a way that is not just personal but political.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But still I cling to the teary joy of that moment in the\npark \u2013 when a man who finally found someone to love tears down his suicide\nnote, his lonely heart lonely no more. A reason to love, a reason to live. A\nreason to return to Swan Lake<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above: Liam Mower as the prince. Below: Matthew Ball as the Swan. Photos: Johan Persson.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow David on Twitter: @mrdavidjays<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There aren\u2019t many props in dance. Some may intrude on classical ballet, though only the most trad production will drag out the shiny swords and goblets. Otherwise, anything that gets in the way of bodies is considered clutter, and faces the full Marie Kondo. After all, there\u2019s a reason those tights and tutus don\u2019t have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[30,29,512,322,321,31],"class_list":{"0":"post-1706","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ballet","9":"tag-dance","10":"tag-matthew-bourne","11":"tag-props","12":"tag-propwatch","13":"tag-swan-lake","14":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1706"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1752,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1706\/revisions\/1752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}