I often say that Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures do to ballet what the Royal Shakespeare Company do to Shakespeare: they make it accessible, interesting and relevant. It never crossed my mind that Bourne might one day tackle Shakespeare…
Romeo + Juliet uses the music of Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet, including the roaring ‘Dance of the Knights’, which opens the show. The piece of music is most recognisable for being the theme tune of BBC’s The Apprentice; I was half expecting Lord Sugar to come out (I would have left).
Bourne’s ballets are notable, amongst other things, for their sumptuous sets and creative costumes. The production value of Sleeping Beauty, his last ballet to visit the Lowry, was more dazzling than the movement; it was a real spectacle but the choreography, whilst beautiful, was not as complex and impressive as the movement seen in Bourne’s other ballets, such as The Red Shoes and Nutcracker!
Romeo + Juliet, however, is the inverse. Aesthetically, it is not recognisable as a Bourne ballet. There is but one static set, and it is almost entirely white. Most of the cast wear white, save for the antagonist who wears black (a bit of a cliché, but in a story like Romeo and Juliet, it works wonderfully). External characters wear dark colours, which physically removes them from the main action.
Early on, there is some super impressive choreography, in which the ensemble plays around with chairs; it’s thrilling. But the end of Act Two (which is followed by an interval) is the highlight of the ballet. It’s the scene in which Tybalt slays Mercutio. The movement is fast, fierce and frantic. My heart was racing.
I should mention that Bourne sets his version of the story in a mental hospital; Romeo, Juliet and most of the other characters from the play are patients in the hospital. It’s no longer a story between feuding families, which is rather outdated. Indeed, the forbidden love trope has been used time and time again in works of art, but the feuding families aspect is often replaced with another dilemma, e.g. warring gangs, each a different race, in West Side Story.
With the characters being played by ballet dancers, the hospital’s patients are gorgeous might, which might feel a little bit odd but you’re quickly caught up in the action.
Bourne’s ballet is minimal and clinical, a far cry from the splendour of his previous productions, but it’s a refreshing change. The bare setting directs your focus to the dancers and their movement. The setting creates a feeling of entrapment, which heightens the drama.
As is often the case in ballet, the cast varies night by night. On press night, we had Paris Fitzpatrick and Cornelia Braithwaite, both of whom starred in the original cast, as the title characters. Fitzpatrick had previously impressed me in Sleeping Beauty, in which he played the bad fairy, Carabosse, and her son, Caradoc.
In this hospital, the patients have solidarity with each other; they are in it together. There is even a gay relationship between Mercutio (Rory Macleod) and Balthasar (Jackson Fisch), which is radical and refreshing for Shakespeare but this ballet makes it feel natural, like it was always there – in part because, to the other patients, they are just another couple, like Romeo and Juliet.
Usually, Mercutio’s death does not evoke much emotion because Mercutio is, ultimately, expandable. But in Bourne’s story, his death is perhaps more tragic than the death of the title characters. I looked forward to that iconic death scene but I prayed that Mercutio would be spared.
I applaud Bourne for adding a gay relationship to the story. Throughout history, many queer people have been sent to mental hospitals, and conversion therapy is still around, so the inclusion of gay characters in this story is perhaps sociopolitical commentary – and criticism.
The gay love story ultimately falls victim to the ‘bury your gays’ trope but it’s a Shakespearean tragedy so that’s not really an issue. A more radical retelling might have offered us a gay couple at the centre of the story. Way back in 2007, Bourne expressed interest in a gay Romeo and Juliet, focusing on ‘Romeo and Julian’, similar to the gay love story at the centre of his most well-known ballet, Swan Lake.
Bourne breathes new life into ballet. I have absolutely no interest in watching traditional ballet (or Shakespeare, for that matter), but Bourne is one of only two theatremakers whose shows I will never miss (the other is Javaad Alipoor, who creates a very different kind of theatre).
Even the curtain call is radical. Following the bows, I decided to leave so I’d make the 10 pm bus back to Burnley, but as we approached the door, Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ was blasted from the speakers. The gay relationship did not shock me but that did.
Romeo and Juliet and ‘Bad Romance’. Two iconic texts, one of them written by the greatest writer of all time; the other, by Shakespeare.
Matthew Bourne’s Romeo + Juliet runs at The Lowry (Lyric Theatre) until July 15 and tours the UK until November 4 2023.
Bourne’s annual autumn ballet will be a revival of Edward Scissorhands, which tours the UK from November 20 2023 to April 20 2024. Its second stop will be The Lowry (Lyric Theatre), where it plays from November 28 to December 2 2023.
