No-one who saw Matthew Bourne’s thrilling all-male production of Swan Lake will ever forget it, and will be eagerly awaiting his next extraordinary work, Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty, 2013 Olivier Award Nominee for Outstanding Achievement in Dance and screening at Palace Cinema on September 7.
Perrault’s timeless fairytale, about a young girl cursed to sleep for one hundred years, was turned into a legendary ballet by Tchaikovsky and choreographer, Marius Petipa, in 1890. Bourne takes this date as his starting point, setting the Christening of Aurora, the story’s heroine, in the year of the ballet’s first performance; the height of the Fin-de-Siècle period when fairies, vampires and decadent opulence fed the gothic imagination.
As Aurora grows into a young woman, we move forward in time to the more rigid, uptight Edwardian era, a mythical golden age of long summer afternoons, croquet on the lawn and new dance crazes. Years later, awakening from her century long slumber, Aurora finds herself in the modern day, a world more mysterious and wonderful than any fairy story!
Matthew Bourne’s haunting new scenario is a gothic fairytale for all ages. The traditional tale of good versus evil and rebirth is turned upside-down, creating a supernatural love story across the decades that even the passage of time itself cannot hinder. Britain’s most popular dance showman works again with three of his regular collaborators, and New Adventures Associate Artists: Tony and Olivier award-winning designers Lez Brotherston (set and costumes) and Paule Constable (Lighting) and Sound Designer Paul Groothuis, who created the acclaimed surround-sound for last year’s hit production of Cinderella.
Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty screens at Palace Byron Bay Cinema on Saturday September 7 at 1 pm.
Tickets $18-$20 available now at the cinema box office or online at www.palacecinemas.com.au
