Ever since I first heard about Matthew Bourne's Swam Lake, where men play the Swans, I have been both intrigued and a little put off. I could be very cool - or it could be a gratuitous gay take on Swan Lake.
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I was very very wrong.
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Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake isn't gay. The maleness of the Swan's is perfect and within character of Swans - you know if you have ever had one of the nasty animals come at you when you have a piece of bread.
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But I digress....
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This Swan Lake is completely amazing and will blow you away - I kick myself now for waiting so long to see it.
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It is set is the beautiful hipster moment of just a few minutes and decades ago. The Queen wears (and dances) in stunning colored mid-length gowns of blue and red. Her son, the haunted Prince, dresses in pseudo military outfits.
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The ensemble dresses as bar patrons in wild 1960's fashions, and later as Royal Party Goers is high fashion duds right out of magazines today. Getting those damn women out of tutus is the best thing that could ever happen.
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They do keep the ballet structure, but instead of perfect lines of women, the male Swans dance in groups, in formation, exploding about the stage. The Swans swarm on stage and cavort like Peter Pan's lost boys all grown up. It is gleeful dancing full of swagger, bravado and fun.
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The Prince is dominated by his mother and not allowed to date the woman he wants (although to the Queen's credit, his chosen paramour is a uncouth blond tart :-), and yet the Queen herself remains coolly indifferent to her son's emotional needs. He is lost as a son, a man and a person.
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And so, when he stumbles upon the gathering of Swans, dominated by the Swan Prince with a steely sexuality, he is in love. In love with the camaraderie, the freedom and the beauty of the Swans. He becomes a Man in their presence.
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The tragedy is that he cannot bring that Man into the Court when he confronts his mother again or when he sees the woman he wants. At the Royal Ball, the Prince falls back into the thankless role of son, impotent and ignored. When the Swan Prince shows up as the Stranger at the Ball and proceeds to bring every woman to her knees with desire, we see what the Prince should and could have become.
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It was sensational.
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