Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake

I've returned home tonight on a high from seeing Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at Sadlers Wells (what a culture-hound I am). It was excellent. I've never seen the 'normal' version of Swan Lake and I don't particularly want to - this is the standard against which all other versions must be judged.

It's the story of a prince who grows up in his mother's shadow, pulled close to her but pushed away from all affection at the same time. The royal routine and his mother's aloofness becomes too much for him and he finds himself in a park about to commit suicide in the lake. But then the swans appear, glorious swans, beautiful swans scattering happiness and joy around them and he is entranced, particularly by the lead swan who, in Matthew Bourne's version, is played by a man, as are all the swans.

Later at a royal ball, the swan re-appears in human form and seduces all the women in sight and the prince, who is distraught, tries to kill his mother, who also has been seduced. The ballet ends in his bedroom where he's been taken after a cruel medical exaination to cure him of his mania and the swans come to visit. No longer full of joy they turn wild and attack him. The lead swan tries to protect him but the swan is killed by his own band of swans and the prince too dies, of injuries or heartache, I don't know. His mother enters to find him dead on his bed while in the window above we see his swan carrying him off to paradise.

A precis will never describe the story properly, with dances of joy, seduction, madness and despair meaning different things to different people. I loved it. I loved the swan-trews the dancers wore, the stylised set and costumes, the extreme lighting and the precision of the dancers. I know nothing about ballet so for all I know the thing could have been full of mistakes, but I loved it all the same. I loved the joyful, daft swans of the first act, the movements all bird-like, jerky and elegant. The vicious creatures of the second act left me scared and broken. Wild passions can do that.

You can see a clip of the show here. Watch it and then buy tickets if you can.