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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Sarah Crompton

Edward Scissorhands review – Matthew Bourne’s tender hymn to difference and acceptance

Liam Mower as Edward Scissorhands.
Liam Mower as Edward Scissorhands: ‘raises a smile even as it touches the heart’. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a Matthew Bourne show filling the stage of Sadler’s Wells. Edward Scissorhands is a particularly good fit not only for the snow that drifts down from the rafters, but also for the tenderly presented message nestled in its heart about difference and acceptance.

It’s a production, cleverly adapted by Caroline Thompson from the 1990 Tim Burton film, that turns the boy with flashing blades for hands into a symbol for all outsiders – and Peg Boggs, the kindly housewife, who sees his loneliness and offers him a home full of love, into the kind of Good Samaritan society needs.

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