Catch it while you can! Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty
I don’t know how she does it?! Our mighty Muddy leader Hero over at Bucks & Oxon I mean, who somehow manages to be here, there and everywhere… this week she has squeezed in so much I’m convinced she’s been cloned! Thankfully for all of us she (or a pretty convincing body double) managed to be at the opening night of Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty at the Wycombe Swan, and I figured as it’s just a quick whizz up the M40 for us here in Berks, it was well worth sharing. Over to you H!
Just a quickie review this, because I need to let you know before it ends on Saturday. I went to the Wycombe Swan last night to see the opening night of Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty and it was every bit as incredible as I’ve been banging on about in the Muddy Guide. This revived 2012 ballet is on its last few days in the UK before it disappears to South Korea, so I am flagwaving madly.
One of the reasons Matthew Bourne is so brilliant is because he turns conventions on their head and makes ballet exciting for those who would ordinarily not bother going to a tutu-fest. So this Sleeping Beauty is born in Victorian times, has her coming out at an Edwardian tennis party and then sleeps for 100 years as kids in 2011 wear tracksuits and take selfies next to the palace gates behind which she is trapped. And this flirty princess has already fallen in love with the gardener, who by the first interval has been bitten by a vampire…. are you getting the idea?!
The pace and story telling set it apart from traditional ballet – it’s edge-of-the-seat stuff – and in this show there is no en pointe work at all, but a modern choreography that captures the vibrant excitement of the young lovers, and the angular angry menace of Carabosse and her children.
There are just a few tickets dotting around for the various performances so if you want to see something highly original and different, have a rootle around the days left (Thurs to Sat plus matinees) and grab some seats. I think you’ll totally love it.
Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, The Wycombe Swan, until Sat 28 May. Tickets £28 – 41.50. Buy tickets