Various ramblings by the small hobbit

Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favourite movie, book, or show! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passers by to check it out.

My chosen subject is Sir Matthew Bourne's New Adventures productions.  

No surprise to my regular readers!

For those who aren't: these are dance productions based on classic ballets (Swan Lake, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker), films (Edward Scissorhands, The Red Shoes), play or opera (Romeo & Juliet, Car Man) or books (The Midnight Bell).  There are a few more, but I haven't seen them (yet!)

They aren't traditional ballets, but do use some ballet moves, as well as modern dance.  The key thing is the story which is told and which requires no prior knowledge.  These are the dance version of fanfic or fanart, taking the original stories but changing them in interesting ways.

Details can be found here: New Adventures

And you can find out more of my thoughts using my tag: Matthew Bourne 

Here's my bedroom walls:

Back in September 2021, J and I went to the Cheltenham Everyman for the premiere of Sir Matthew Bourne's New Adventures 'The Midnight Bell'.  It was my chance to go to something which was entirely new, and something I'd probably never get the opportunity to do again.  And I really enjoyed it.

This summer the production is being revived and yet again, to great excitement on my part, the first performance was in Cheltenham.  I booked tickets as soon as booking opened, and got excellent stalls seats.



As I said when I originally reviewed this piece, it's very much Sir Matthew Bourne does fan fiction.  The Midnight Bell is based on a pub and the characters from six of Patrick Hamilton's books: the trilogy 'Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky', 'Hangover Square', 'The Slaves of Solitude' and 'The Gorse Trilogy'.  I had read the books prior to going the first time, and knowing their stories does help a bit with the characters, but it isn't essential.  The dancers and the set were excellent and the music fits in perfectly.



As for the fanfic - take ten characters from different books, put them in the same venue, but use dance instead of written words.  For three of the couples keep to canon pairing, for one couple take characters from two different books who have never met, and finally add two original characters.  

Because it was the first performance, Sir Matthew Bourne was in the audience, sitting three rows directly in front of me.  Sitting next to him was Etta Murfitt, associate artistic director of New Adventures.  As we left after the performance, both were standing in the side aisle.  J said to Sir Matthew that he'd really enjoyed the performance, and then I got to say that it was brilliant, that we'd been at the very first performance and how delighted I was to be able to see it again.  And all without getting totally tongue-tied and spouting rubbish.  Which, as you can imagine, made my evening!

Thank you very much to all of you who sent me good wishes for my birthday - I did appreciate it.

And one person who needs particular thanks is my good friend stonepicnicking_okapi  She made me a junk journal taking the theme of two of Sir Matthew Bourne's productions: Swan Lake and The Car Man.  It's truly amazing and every time I look at it I spot something different.

One of the things which particularly appealed is that she's taken parts of a couple of my ficlets and included them within the journal, which makes it such a very special present.

If you'd like to see more, and you really should, she's posted about the making of it over here: She's crafty: Hobbit's Matthew Bourne Junk Journal

My main fandom remains Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes.  However, this year I'm going to again promote the works of Sir Matthew Bourne.

And in particular the production we saw last month of Edward Scissorhands

On Thursday we went to Sadler's Wells to see New Adventures perform Sir Matthew Bourne's Romeo & Juliet.  I first saw this in 2019 in its initial run, but was keen to see it again.  It remains a very powerful production, although having seen it before some of the 'gasp' moments didn't have quite the same effect.  Inevitably, I had forgotten how some of the parts of the plot were joined, but it just proves that I always prefer to remain spoiler free, when it's a new production.

I still have Prokofiev's music playing in my head - good job I like it!  I think this time I also thought more about some of the issues the production highlights with the way vulnerable people are treated, and there are many ways people can be vulnerable.

This time I saw Jackson Fisch as Romeo and Monique Jonas as Juliet - I'd particularly hoped to see her in the role.  Danny Reubens was Tybalt, Rory Macleod was Mercutio and Paris Fitzpatrick was Balthasar.  I like seeing various dancers I've also seen in other productions.

Unlike many of New Adventures productions this is a strongly monochrome design, emphasising the anonymity of the characters, with most dressed in white and colour being used to stress something different, and is very effective.

This is different from many of the productions I've seen, but definitely enjoyable and I'd recommend seeing it if you are in the UK when it goes on tour, or even in Los Angeles (Jan/Feb 24) or Paris (March 24).  It does come with a content warning and an age recommendation of 14+ - the issues are ones that are encountered in life, but may not be ones you wish to watch when seeking entertainment.

Today's snowflake_challenge is for a fandom scavenger hunt.

The categories are:
1. A favourite character - Crochet Sherlock Holmes
2. Something that makes you laugh - Holmes Detective Agency notebook, a present from a friend
3. A bookshelf - Upstairs!
4. A game or hobby you enjoy - Cross stitch I'm in the middle of, it's a mermaid for Mini Hobbit's birthday card
5. Something you find comforting - Pooh Bear
6. A TV show or movie you hope more people will watch - Matthew Bourne's Romeo & Juliet postcard top right
7. A piece of clothing you love - warm green hoodie with Pooh Bear
8. A thing from an old fandom - Matthew Bourne's Car Man postcard top left
9. A thing from a new fandom - Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty postcard bottom middle

For the last few years (excluding 2020) between Christmas and New Year, we have gone up to Sadler's Wells theatre in London to see Matthew Bourne's New Adventures production.  This year the production was Sleeping Beauty.

As with all Bourne's productions, they are a different take on the source material, although in this case the fairy story has many different origins.  This is beautifully set, beginning in 1890, the year Tchaikovsky wrong the ballet music, which is used throughout.  This act is very Gothic in style.  Aurora comes of age in 1911, so the setting and costumes are of an Edwardian summer.  100 years later and the awakening is set in 2011, which was the year this version was first performed, with a dramatic finale in red and black.  So brilliant sets and costumes.

The dancers were all excellent.  SM was particularly taken by Ashley Shaw who was dancing Aurora that night.  All the parts have two or three dancers allocated, and the majority of the dancers have two different roles.  And I was delighted to see Paris Fitzpatrick as Count Lilac, the king of the fairies.

As ever all the different elements come together to create the story which carries the audience along.  For us it's just the perfect way to enjoy the time of year.

It was December 2019 when we agreed we wanted to see the Nutcracker, as our between Christmas and New Year treat at Sadler's Wells, in London.  So, as soon as February 2020 arrived and tickets went on sale we booked them.  It was then postponed to this year, and with Omicron running riot a few performances were cancelled before Christmas and we were on tenterhooks whether we would finally see it or not.  However, on Tuesday it was announced it was running again and we agreed we would go.

We drove up to London, not wishing to risk the train - either whether it would run, or how many people would be crammed in if it did.  With a major delay on the motorway it took us five hours from leaving home to the Travelodge we were staying in overnight.  However, we made it, and only had a 15 minute walk to the theatre.

The Nutcracker was wonderful.  It begins in an orphanage and then via a frozen lake to reach Sweetieland.  In the process the theme moves from the grey and black of the orphanage, through the white of the lake to the explosion of colour in Sweetieland.

I can't pick out any dancers to highlight them - they were all incredible.  The complicated routines - and so many of them - together with the obvious joy in performance - means that every time I think someone excels, there's another to take their place.  The sweeties are marvellous, beginning with the humbug, who acts as bouncer.  There's the brightly coloured Allsorts Trio, and the rather dubious Knickerbocker Glory.  The very pink Marshmallow Girls escorting a deeper pink Princess Sugar are complete airheads, while the three Gobstoppers are simply spoiling for a fight.

After the year we've had it was such a joy to finish it with something so bright and cheerful.  In any year this would have been a highlight, but this year it was even more so.

Matthew Bourne's New Adventures.

I'd heard about them for a while, but finally in July 2015 went to see The Car Man at Sadler's Wells.  At the time I wasn't wholly struck, but it slowly worked its way into my head and I'm now a real fan.  A couple of years later we started going to see a Bourne production every Christmas, which is just lovely.

Obviously, our planned trip to see The Nutcracker last Christmas didn't happen, but Sky Arts showed both Swan Lake and Romeo & Juliet.  I'm not a particular fan of filmed plays, but I really enjoyed both of these.  SM joined me in watching Romeo & Juliet, which he hadn't seen, because I saw it on my London trip in summer 2019.  In addition BBC2 showed The Red Shoes on Christmas Day, so I watched that as well.  For anyone in the UK, this is available on iPlayer for another 10 months.

On top of their stage productions the company is quite heavily involved in education, and reaching out to young people who wouldn't normally be attracted to dance.  Currently they're also running zoom classes at various levels, and today I did a two hour Over 55s class, led by Paul Smethurst and Daisy May Kemp, two of their Resident Artists.  It was very enjoyable, as we learnt a little choreography from The Nutcracker, as well as having the opportunity to try out some of our own moves.

I think what particularly appeals to me is the idea of telling a dramatic story just through dance, but without needing to know any of the conventions employed by classical ballet.  I find it really engrossing to watch as a story unfolds before me without any need for dialogue.

This trip I did something of a musical nature on every day.

On Wednesday I went to see Blues in the Night at the Kiln Theatre.  It's a story set in a run down hotel in Chicago in the 1920s, and told entirely through the use of blues songs.  It was very good.  It starred Sharon D Clarke as The Lady, who was excellent, as were the rest of the cast.  I'd particularly mention Debbie Kurup as The Woman.  The set was well conceived, and the band: piano, trumpet, sax, double bass and drums, played live on stage.  I'd really enjoyed Sharon D Clarke in Caroline, or Change, for which she won an Olivier for best actress in a musical, and had jumped at the opportunity to see her again.

On Thursday I saw Matthew Bourne's Romeo & Juliet at Sadler's Wells, which was the first thing I'd booked for my London trip.  This is a typical Bourne re-imagining, set in Verona Institute, which is a psychiatric institute for young people.  It was stunning.  A very simple set, which worked incredibly well and a cast of young dancers.  The performance uses Prokofiev's music but taking the themes and re-creating the score for a 15 player chamber orchestra.  Initially it's not easy to work out what's happening, but it soon becomes clear.  There were outstanding performances from Harrison Dowzell (Romeo), Cordelia Braithwaite (Juliet), Ben Brown (Mercutio) and Jackson Fisch (Barthasar, Mercutio's boyfriend).  I think this was the highlight of an excellent week.  It has been filmed, so if you can't see it on tour, it should be shown in the autumn.  (22 Oct, encore on 6 Nov).

And on Friday SM came up to London and we went to a Prom together.  This was called the Victorian Prom and celebrated the 200th birthday of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.  The highlight of the concert was Stephen Hough (a pianist we both like) playing Mendelssohn's 1st Piano Concerto (he was a friend of Victoria and Albert) on Queen Victoria's own golden piano, which normally resides in the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace.  And after the interval Hough accompanied a young tenor, Alessandro Fisher, who sang Five Songs for which Albert had composed the music.  Albert's music was pretty, rather than grand, but enjoyable.  The piano concerto was lovely, and I was very glad we were able to hear it.  The concert concluded with Mendelssohn's 3rd Symphony (Scottish).