Premiering in 1995 at the Sadler’s Wells theater in London and making its American debut in Los Angeles in 1997, Matthew Bourne’s reimagined Swan Lake has returned to the Ahmanson Theatre. If, however, budding ballerinas are hoping to see lithe female swans dancing on pointe and wearing tiaras and white tutus, they might best be told to expect otherwise.
In spite of Bourne’s Swan Lake being an exceptionally vibrant and masterfully created work, it is not one easily associated with the typical holiday season fare of nutcrackers and sugar plum fairies. The swans are all bare-chested virile men who are often not very nice. Bourne’s interpretation of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake is filled with psychological and societal twists to include depression, debauchery, treachery, emotional abuse, insanity and death after which love triumphs.
The revival brings updates of scenic, costume and lighting designs; humorous and funky Cygnets; a very bored and aging burlesque dancer, and a flock of swans who hiss and stomp loudly. Sadly, missing in this version was the child prince which helped illustrate how long the prince had endured his mother’s rejection.
Act I is set in the prince’s bed chamber. We first see the prince asleep in an oversized bed having a nightmare with a vision of an angry male swan flapping his wings overhead. The Prince (Andrew Monaghan) is awakened, physically bathed and clothed by a group of handmaids and valets. He and the Queen (Nicole Kabera) go about their daily obligations of christening ships, festive openings and appearing before their loyal subjects. One change from the original version is the unveiling the Queen’s portrait that finds her likeness painted in the style of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe.
The royal family attends a performance of a ballet where Bourne has created a wonderful satire on Swan Lake, with swans represented as moths and the prince as a lumberjack. It is Bourne’s humorous take on a play within a play.
Act II finds a lonely and somewhat inebriated prince going incognito into the nightclub, becoming even drunker and getting himself thrown outside into a group waiting paparazzies. The costumes have been updated for the nightclub scene and the aging fan dancer is an entertaining shift in characters. The Prince wanders to the park where he intends to drown himself in the lake but is stopped by the lead swan and falls in love.
The dancing is magnificent and the choreography, that hints at the original Russian staging, is full of energy and contemporary ballet movements that highlight the dancers modern and ballet training. Bourne’s use of the swans’ arms, heads and backs is beautiful to watch, and his amusing take on the Cygnets is priceless. The hissing and menacing behavior brings an authenticity to the swans, who in reality are graceful and beautiful, but aggressive if approached.
The curtain rises on Act III to find an elitist crowd arriving at the Royal Ball where the Queen is hoping the Prince finds an appropriate match who is fit to one day occupy the throne. Will Bozier brilliantly alters his persona from the affectionate Swan (Odette, the white swan) into the sexy, sadistic, leather clad Stranger (Odile, the black swan) and Monaghan artfully portrays the Prince’s struggles with his mother opening flirting with who he believes to be his love. We clearly see his descent into anger and insanity. Monaghan artfully shifts from the spoiled, naive young prince into a mature, jealous and deeply troubled man.
Act IV finds everyone dressed in all white. Throughout the production, the Queen’s private secretary (Jack Jones) has acted as confident, instructor to the Prince, plotter of bringing down the royal prince and finally the evil doctor who locks the Prince inside an all-white, sterile cell with a barred window far above his head. The doctor, assisted by a group of nurses wearing masks that appear straight out of a Stephen King horror film, induces medical treatments designed to deepen the Prince’s delirium. The scene and the choreography are sinister, surreal and frightening. I thought of the 1948 film Snake Pit directed by Anatole Litvak.
The action becomes even more nightmarish as the Prince is returned to his bed chamber and the swans enter from underneath, behind his bed and from within the walls. A scarred lead swan struggles his way out from inside the bed’s mattress and the fight is on between the two lovers and the flock of revengeful, cannibalistic swans.
The beauty of Tchaikovsky’s music successfully masks the violent visuals of Act IV. The flock overtakes the prince, then kills and devours The Swan. As they disperse, the Prince awakens and dies of heartbreak. The Queen’s expression of love for her son arrives too late. He is dead. The vision of the two lovers’ spirits united in death is beautiful but does not bode well for the future of forbidden loves.
Throughout this production, I became weary of a few of the group scenes and Bourne’s group movement phrases felt repetitive. In these times, I had hoped that Bourne might also update the ending for the same sex lovers, but he would have lost the violence of the flock. Bourne’s reimagined Swan Lake is darker than his original version and for me, the jury is still out on which is best.
The Queen is expertly performed by Nicole Kabera, although I wanted her to show even more coldness in her facial expressions towards her son. Katrina Lyndon brings great comedic timing to her role as The Girlfriend. The entire company of dancers are incredible. Those not mentioned above include Nicole Alphonce, Andrew Ashton, Jonathon Luke Baker, Benjamin Bazeley, Alistair Beattie, Callum Bowman, Isaac Peter Bowry, Tom Broderick, Megan Cameron, João Castro, Kayla Collymore, Zanna Cornelis, Cameron Everitt, Freya Field, Keenan Fletcher, Michaela Guibarra, Parsifal James Hurst, Shoko Ito, Mari Kamata, Nicholas Keegan, James Lovell, Jack Mitchell, Harry Ondrak-Wright, Ashley-Jordon Packer, Jack William Parry, Barnaby Quarendon, Sam Salter, Mark Samaras, Alex Sturman, Katie Webb, Stan West, Max Westwell, and Carrie Willis.
The extraordinary Lighting Design is by Paule Constable, the stylized sets and beautifully tailored costumes are by Lez Brotherston, and the Projection Design is by Duncan McLean.
One hopes that the Ahmanson Theatre does not wait as long as it did for this to return, to bring back this wonderful and inspiring company.
Written by Jeff Slayton for LA Dance Chronicle, 2019.
To visit the Matthew Bourne New Adventures website, click here.
To visit the Glorya Kaufman Dance at the Music Center website, click here.
Featured image: L-R: Andrew Monaghan (left), Will Bozier (center) and company in Matthew Bourne’s “Swan Lake” at Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre – Photo by Craig Schwartz.