MATTHEW BOURNE’S SWAN LAKE – Review
MAYFLOWER THEATRE – until 15th March 2025 then continuing tour
Review by PHayward 11th March 2025
It’s eleven years since Matthew Bourne first brought his groundbreaking version of Swan Lake to Mayflower Theatre and by then it was fast approaching its twentieth birthday. Now its back for its 30th anniversary tour. For those that might not know, Matthew Bourne rather than take the traditional path from classical dance is primarily a choreographer and when he set up his London-based company Adventures in Motion Pictures in 1987, the year after he graduated, he was just 26. Sir (as he is now) Matthew Bourne was always fascinated with the story telling approach of Hollywood and set about bringing the magic of cinema through dance to the stage. His version of Swan Lake was his first major hit, not only in London, but around the world. I happened to be in Los Angeles when the US premiere of this Swan Lake took place at the Ahmanson Theatre in 1987 and the reaction was like an earthquake, the classical purists hating it, the dance world loving it and the native Hollywooders ecstatic.
Roll forward almost 30 years and I would say that the audiences of Southampton have become total Hollywooders. It is fantastic to see such a large and diverse audience across the age groups obviously relishing in the spectacle, the dance interpretation and the characterisations. This is “Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake”, I can think of no other choreographer that had the bottle to put his name before the title of any major piece. Again, it’s pure Hollywood, think “Spielberg’s Jaws”. It has to be better than good and this is!
Bourne uses every aspect of theatre to bring his story to the stage, the dramatic force of characterisation, humour, delivered pantomime style (even the corgi dog antics), the costumes, sets, lighting and even video. All brought together by the careful balancing of classical ballet, modern dance and the synchronicity of musical theatre. This Swan Lake centres on the strained relationship between a ‘little boy lost’ Prince (James Lovell) and his stately mother, the Queen (Nicole Kabera), caught in an avalanche of ceremony, civic duty and the need to be, just, royal. The Prince meets a girl (Bryony Wood) who has little class and obviously is intent on social climbing to the very top, which is brilliantly displayed on a visit to the ballet where they watch a typical woodland ballet.
What really makes this Swan Lake different is by going back to the 19th-century ballet, Bourne confronts his Prince with a conundrum based on the mystery of the swan, one a vision of flight and transcendence, the other of sexual appetite, both played with terrific attack by Jackson Fisch. Bourne’s white swans are famously all men, feather-thighed and bare-chested. It’s the aggression rather than grace that infatuates the Prince’s dreams. But when it comes to flesh – The Stranger, in swan mode at the ball, the Prince loses out to his own mother. My word, could that cause problems – and it does. The stylish and witty designs from Lez Brotherston bring total belief to the piece and the outstanding feature is the huge white bed that dominates both the opening and closing chapters.
Bourne’s choreography shines more in the solos and duets than in the ensemble, and in fact the only let down of the evening was with the dancing of the swans. What should be the power of the strikingly naturalistic moves for the 14 swans is diminished as though the tour is going on too long, it’s every night and we’re bored with delivering the routine. The dancing needs to be tighter, better rehearsed and delivered with meaning – it has been on the production’s previous two visits – so for me this was the one disappointment. But there is a lot to celebrate and even more to appreciate.
The Southampton audiences are normally welcoming and very appreciative of the performance, but last night it was exceptional. Seldom do we witness Mayflower Theatre audiences so enthusiastic following an evening of pure dance, they were really pleading with the company for more. It must be so pleasing for all members of the company to get such a reaction from a capacity audience.
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