20 January 2025
Like the finest of wines, Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake just gets better with age. This 30th anniversary production, featuring a gaggle of new and upcoming stars from the New Adventures talent development programme, is the best yet. I floated out of Sadler’s Wells on a cloud of pure joy that i wish i could bottle.
This audacious reinvention of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece featuring a fierce and feral flock of athletic swans – all men, shaggy-thighed and bare-chested – caused a seismic sensation when it premiered and has since become the most successful dance theatre production of all time.
I first saw it during its premiere season at Sadler’s Wells in 1995, then again when it became the longest running full-length dance classic in the West End at the Piccadilly Theater before conquering Broadway. It has collected over 30 international awards including the Olivier for Best New Dance Production and three Tonys for Best Director of a Musical, Best Choreography and Best Costume Design.
I am delighted to report that the new production is a jaw-dropping, eye-popping, dazzling triumph.
Bourne’s contemporary twist on Swan Lake centres on the intimate yet dysfunctional relationship between an emotionally stunted Prince (Leonardo McKorkindale, heartbreakingly nervous, slightly awkward, desperate for affection and discovering that he is more interested in men than female Palace groupies, including Kurumi Kamayachi, hilariously gauche and a vision in pink) and his cold, imperious mother, the Queen (Ashley Shaw, regal and slutty at the same time with a blood red ball gown underlining her promiscuous sexuality – no man in a uniform is safe from her gaze or pawing).
The Prince is confronted by both a beautiful, muscular white swan, a vision of flight and transcendence, and a black swan with canal appetite – a dark stranger in tight fitting black leather. Both are played with terrific attack by the sensational Harrison Dowzell (a former Billy Elliott child star now a true leading man of dance, strapping, muscular with incredible power and grace). As the Stranger in the ball scene, Dowzell transforms into a swaggering, sexually smouldering man, and it’s staggering to see the Prince seemingly lose out this time to his flirtatious mother. A devastating moment.
When the rest of the swans finally turn on Dowzell with terrifying ferocity, it reminded me of the scene in Suddenly Last Summer when Sebastian is overwhelmed by a gang of boys who tear him apart and eat pieces of his flesh like vultures; the swans’ mob mentality is truly horrifying to witness as Dowzell loses himself completely in the moment, dancing up a storm. I swear I forgot to breathe for several minutes.
Untimately, Swan Lake is a glorious, fun-filled sight to behold. It is one of life’s greatest pleasures and we are lucky to have it back in the city. Fly don’t run to see it before January 26 and it goes out on national tour.
