Sleeping Beauty and vampires. This unlikely pairing is the crux of Matthew Bourne’s production (which premiered in 2012) and the conceit actually makes sense: if Aurora is trapped in an enchanted sleep for 100 years, how is her true love going to wait it out? A spot of immortality should do it.
When evil Carabosse appears in black feather wings, gesticulating wildly with great booms of thunder crashing against Tchaikovsky’s music, it sets the melodramatic tone. You just have to go with the OTT theatrics. Bourne crams a whole load of his favourite things into this show: the fairytale twist, period details, farce and comedy of manners, visual humour (there’s a puppet baby that gets the biggest laughs) and Lez Brotherston’s extravagant designs.
