‘Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake.” Think about how that sounds. Only a handful of film directors have been distinctive and famous enough to become “the name above the title”, and here is Bourne, surely the only choreographer-director whose name naturally precedes the title not only of most of his works, but of the world’s best-known ballet. Premiered in 1995, this Swan Lake is now back for a 30th anniversary tour.
Bourne’s signature style is much in evidence. He taps some time-honoured and very British theatre traditions – character-driven drama, touches of pantomime or music hall, stories that understand the social corsetry of class and the perennial appeal of costume drama and the monarchy. His Swan Lake centres on the intimate yet dysfunctional relationship between an emotionally cauterised Prince (Stephen Murray, affectingly conflicted) and his imperious mother, the Queen (Ashley Shaw, regally assured), within a milieu of public ceremony, civic duty and constant keeping up of appearances.
