~ Curious Charlie ~

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty - A Gothic Romance @ Wednesday, September 11, 2013

"Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty is a lavish, gothic fairytale with a twist on the traditional story. It begins in 1890 when the story was first turned into a legendary ballet by Tchaikovsky and Marius Pepita. It moves through to the decadence of the Edwardian period and ends in the modern day."

Carabosse who was not invited to Aurora's Christening is not happy.

She has a son Caradoc, who is also a vampire.

The faeries are all vampires in this gothic version.

This bit reminds me of Danse des petits cygnes from Swan Lake.

I thought they were just dark faeries till I saw the fangs later on.

Count Lilac, King of the ~~Fairies~~ Vampires is not happy with Carabosse,

and sends her off to the land of exile where she ~~meets Romeo and~~ dies.

Aurora's 16th Birthday Picnic Park. Edwardian aka Downton Abbey Era.

It seems white was very popular back then, doesn't it get dirty?

Aurora meets Caradoc and his blue rose of death.

He's the one in the lab coat. He reminds me a lot of Carl from Blood+,

he's obsessed with the girl, Saya, and has a blue rose.

Carl also has long dark hair. Here's a picture.

Both Carl & Caradoc get killed.

Back to the story.

Aurora likes Leo, the Royal Gamekeeper, and he likes her.

At some point between this scene and the last she took off her dress,

and for the rest of the ballet she's a lingerie dress - which isn't what you think it is.

Aurora & Leo. She's so pretty!

Soon she pricks her finger on a thorn of the blue rose and falls into a deep sleep.

It seems that Caradoc likes her, in a creepy way. Later he wants to marry her...

Meanwhile vampire king turns Leo (the boy) into a vampire.

There's lots of sleep walking... I love this scene, it's so pretty!

... and dancing with other people in a coma?

More dancing.

Caradoc leads Leo to Aurora, Leo kisses her and she awakens,

though she's still under a spell and dazed, though she does try to run away.

There's a 'Creatures of the Night' party at a night club which I thought was a gothic wedding.

That's the vampire king, I wonder where are his wings?

The party turns out to be more of a sacrifice party, Caradoc intends to kill Aurora though the vampire king (guy in red) kills him just in time. This is the bit where I figure out there's two main long dark-haired guys around.

Aurora & Leo are reunited, being a vampire (courtesy of the vampire king) Leo's still alive after she awakens. He turns her into a vampire (it is now modern day) and they make a vampire baby girl who can fly. First vampire to fly - other than the ones that imply they fly.

And they all lived happily ever after, for those that lived.

Till Van Helsing came along. :P

Plot

"The story does, for the most part, follow that of the traditional ballet – a King and Queen (Edwin Ray and Daisy May Kemp, respectively) despair at their inability to conceive a child and so, they ask the dark fairy, Carabosse (Malificent in Disney’s version) to bless them with one, which she does. However, the King and Queen forget to show their gratitude toward Carabosse (Adam Maskall), and she plots a terrible revenge.

However, this is where the story begins to differ. Carabosse instead dies alone and broken in exile, where it falls to her loyal son (also Maskall), Caradoc, to carry out the wicked deed. As Aurora (Hannah Vassallo) comes of age, we see that she has fallen in love with Leo, the Royal Gamekeeper (Dominic North), who, upon learning of Aurora’s curse, is turned into a vampire by Count Lilac, the King of the Fairies (Liam Mower), in order to be around to awaken Aurora once 100 years have passed. " - Source

Aurora falls asleep in Act 2 in 1911, in a gorgeous Edwardian world of white frocks, parasols and garden parties. After a hundred years of slumber, she is awoken in Act 3 in 2011; her one true love turns up wearing jeans and a zip-up sweater. This one true love, incidentally, is not a handsome prince but the castle's humble gamekeeper, Leo, who has a star-crossed romance with the young Aurora in the halcyon Edwardian period.

My Review

It was amazing! Sleeping Beauty's my favourite fairytale (not the version where everyone screwed her while she was in a coma though, more of the Disney version). Tchaikovsky is amazing as always, I had the soundtrack back it back when it was on tape. Bourne's interpretation with a gothic theme (love it) is vampires. The opening act where Aurora is a baby has her appear as a puppet! That's pretty cool.

The story I was a bit confused about, turns out the bit where the leads wear flesh colour face masks is like a prediction, viewing of the future. And I thought there were two bad guys (both vampires) but it turns out that everyone is a vampire, and one of the evil guy while the other is King Lilac the vampire king and a good guy. "The curse is that Aurora will grow to be a young woman and then prick her finger on a black rosebud's thorn and die. Count Lilac intervenes and counters the curse, promising the king that Aurora will simply fall asleep and will then be awoken by a kiss from her one true love." - Source

Everything was lovely with "the atmosphere is probably best described as A Midsummer Night's Dream meets Tim Burton with a hint of Anne Rice". Act 3, set in a moonlit forest bedecked with oil lamps and inhabited by half-dressed sleepwalkers, was very cool. Can we have that as the theme for our wedding?

The stage was really cool with "conveyor belts running towards the back of the stage they were cleverly used for the fairies to dance along to give them a lighter daintier and floatier step. The fairies danced into the scenes along them, it really added to their performance. It was also used for use of struggles for example when the gardener was trying to find the princess blindfolded he walked in the opposite direction to the way the conveyor belt was traveling." - Source.

Here's another short review, and plot summary.

I highly recommend you see this when it comes to a cinema near you.

We I (jas slept throughout it) went to the advance screening at Cinema Nova

last Wednesday. Unfortunately there's only two sessions, and by the time you

read this it'll be over. :( But hopefully it'll come around again.

Do you like the ballet?