A rich gothic and deco themed take on the classic tale from Northern Ballet...
Northern Ballet and the Northern Ballet Sinfonia are in town with their latest work Beauty and the Beast. An odd one to reimagine in ballet perhaps but fear not, there is not a single dancing Disney candlestick.
The Beauty and the Beast tale has been evolving in European folk law since before the eighteenth century and this production has plenty of European gothic atmosphere. The opening scene transports you straight in to this world in spectacular fashion with pirouettes, poses and voguing to Danse Macabre.
Prince Orian is handsome, privileged and arrogant. In love with his own image and socialite entourage, more than a touch of made in Chelsea here. During this first scene his kindness is tested by a good fairy Le Fee Luminaire and he is found wanting. As a result evil fairy La Fee Mignifique disfigures him and turns the Prince in to a brutish Beast who escapes to live alone in his castle with just his man-servant for company. Ashley Dixon’s primal Beast is incredibly expressive and acrobatic balanced by the calm and measured poise of his man-servant performed by Hiranao Takahashi.
At the same time Beauty (Dreda Blow) is living a comfortable life with her father and two unpleasant, vain socialite sisters. However, all is not well with the family finances thanks to the fashionista sisters and the debt collectors descend to strip the family of all they have in a rather amusing scene. With nowhere to live Beauty and her family are forced to take refuge hillbilly style in the woods. While searching for food Beauty’s father stumble into a strange garden where he picks a beautiful rose, immediately coming to the attention of the Beast. In exchange for his life he agrees to hand over one of his daughters and with great trepidation Beauty agrees and moves to the Castle.
Director David Nixon has taken a pretty traditional approach to the telling of the story of Beauty falling in love with the Beast, the Beast redeeming himself and everyone living happily ever after will come as no surprise. What is different is Nixon’s fresh approach to the costumes, sets and lighting. The sets, designed by Duncan Hayler, are big and bold with both gothic and Art Deco touches – reminiscent of the great set piece scenes from 30s silver screen musicals.
However, the image of black and white movies soon evaporates when you add the incredible lighting design of Tim Mitchell. Bold colour washes, strobes and black light pick up the paint and mirrors on the sets and work beautifully with the spectacular costume designs of Julie Anderson. She uses a muted colour pallet but goes wild with the different types of fabrics from satin to chiffon playing off the light. The almost liquid silver deco dress worn by the good fairy is breathtaking.
The Northern Ballet Sinfonia by no means take back seat to the dancers. A score of French music was chosen with classic numbers from Debussy and Saint Saens rubbing shoulders with a surprising amount of organ music which further added to the gothic feel.
Beautiful classical performances all round, seemlessly blended with touches of modern physicality, though some scenes were a little hard to follow in plot terms and it would have been great to see the impressively physical Beast interact even more with the climbing wall primed sets.
If you are a fan of classical or modern ballet you will love this performance, as usual Northern Ballet regulars won’t be disappointed.
Northern Ballet’s Beauty and the Beast plays at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal until Saturday 5 November 2016
Theatre Royal website
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