Alice in Wonderland, The Royal Ballet 02/03/11 & 10/03/11

Following my disappointment at Anna Nicole, I was slightly nervous about the next big new thing to arrive on the opera house stage. However, after one fantastic insight evening with choreographer Chris Wheeldon, designer Bob Crowley and composer Joby Talbot, the nerves were replaced by excited anticipation. And I was not disappointed.

This is a ballet stacked full of treats, in all respects; dancing, staging and music. Joby Talbot’s intricate and textured score is spine-tingling magic, modern yet accessible, with some memorable melodies – entirely successful in helping you dive with Lewis Carroll into Alice’s Wonderland. The choreography if not ground-breaking in innovation is effective in conveying character, humour and vivacity, and works beautifully with Talbot’s music. The designs are simply FABULOUS and never more so than in Act II when the playing cards appear – tutus in the shape of all the suits, topple-able houses of cards, a heart shaped maze – wonderful stuff. And yet, remarkably, the choreography and the characters do not get lost among all the brightness and business of the staging. Combining classical steps with elements of more contemporary dance works well within the constraints of the story and is rightly unobstructive to the narrative of the ballet. Which is a good thing as the narrative is already the only slightly weak element of this production.

‘Alice’ is by nature episodic, and lacking in plot to steer the audience through the evening. Wheeldon, with the help of Nicholas Wright, has rather cleverly tweaked the scenario such that Alice is older than in the book and is beginning to have romantic interests, namely in Jack the gardener’s boy/knave of hearts. The trip to wonderland is also preceded by a prologue, introducing all the characters that Alice encounters on her trip as characters at a Victorian dinner party. Jack is fired by Alice’s mother, accused of (you guessed it) stealing a jam tart, and Alice’s trip with Lewis Carroll (the White Rabbit) into Wonderland is driven by her desire to see him again. However, while this helps to a certain extent, it is underdeveloped as a plot, and doesn’t succeed as an antidote to the episodic. That said I still very very much enjoyed the whole thing. It doesn’t matter that Alice’s adventures are almost unrelated – there are enough delights and surprises along the way, and just about sufficient plot to keep things rolling. I think the right balance was struck in keeping this as a child’s adventure rather than playing too much to the potential for more sinister interpretations a la Tim Burton.

So what of these delights and surprises? Clever visual effects to help Alice grow and shrink, a caterpillar of ballet dancers, a tap dancing mad hatter, a trampoline victoria sponge cake, a laugh-out loud jam tart adagio pastiche of the Sleeping Beauty Rose Adagio, adorable spiky ballet school hedgehogs…I could go on. Act One is long at 70 minutes, so needs pruning – perhaps the Caucus race could be shortened – at the first viewing I didn’t really know what was going on here. Other than that though, they’ll be hard-pushed to cut something! Act Two, is hilarious and fast-paced from start to finish, with a lovely twist at the end.

As far as individual performances go, they were almost universally strong. Lauren Cuthbertson was clearly in her element as Alice, and coped admirably with the almost constant stage presence, never once appearing tired. Sergei Polunin was a sweetly romantic Knave, although this was a small part for him. In the second cast, Sarah Lamb was not as at home as Cuthbertson with the steps, but was better at keeping the narrative moving. Steven McRae’s tap dancing Mad Hatter was a real treat, even if he was hidden beneath such a garish costume that I would never have guessed it was him were it not for the cast list! A particular star for me though was Zenaida Yanowsky as the Queen of Hearts. Not a dancer I have ever particularly warmed to, she pulled out all the stops; absolutely hilarious, throwing herself into the part, and yet somehow amongst all the tomfoolery retaining some gracefulness. The only miscast was the decision to cast Simon Russell Beale as the Duchess – I wonder whether this might have been more for the media than anything else – he was OK but the role could have been done better by one of the regular character artists.

All in all though, an absolute treat. So much to delight in here, and the collaboration of Christopher Wheeldon, Joby Talbot and Bob Crowley has me marvelling at their collective creative genius. If only Alice had got the headlines that it deserved, like those thrown at Anna Nicole…I guess it comes down to that it’s simply the enchanting story of young girl, a rabbit and some jam tarts, rather than a large-breasted playboy model, and which will sell more papers? A great success in my eyes – I can’t wait to see it again next year.

Chroma/Tryst/Symphony in C - The Royal Ballet, 02/06/2010

The final triple bill of the year for The Royal Ballet, the combination of Wayne McGregor's Chroma, Christopher Wheeldon's Tryst, and the classic Balanchine Symphony in C was an excellent season finale.

Chroma received rave reviews at it's first outing, and with such stunning staging, and wonderfully mesmeric music (orchestration of music by the White Stripes), it's easy to see why. And where the dancing works with the music, this piece is stunning, particularly the central pas de deux, danced at this performance by Sarah Lamb and Eric Underwood. On the whole the choreography is just hallmark McGregor - which was interesting when we hadn't seen much from him, but now just feels a bit tired. It felt disjointed at points;any relationship between the dance and the music seemed to have been severed, with bodies scattered round the stage, often with little connection between dancers. The men were bizarrely overly effeminate. Aside of the tranquility generated in the rare moments of perfect cohesion between music and movement during the pas de deux, this work now feels a bit inconsequential.

Tryst could perhaps have been equally renamed Trance. The music (James MacMillan) is ghastly for the most part - screeching strings - but fortunately this work is weird enough to work it. While perhaps the whole thing felt a little flat emotionally, the movement was interestingly primordial, almost blind, looking as though choreographed for the sensation rather than the visual effect. The four main couples danced well together, if slightly clumsily alone.  The staging was really effective, diagonally arranged on the stage, and the lighting created a ghostly intimate atmosphere, almost like a new dawn or birth at the end, with the dancers writhing as the light comes up from stage left. Interesting, hypnotising, but a bit weird.

Symphony in C was in a whole league of its own, however. I think I often underrate Balanchine, but when you see his work next to these two, albeit very enjoyable and interesting, new works, it outshines them completely. Each movement of Bizet's symphony is taken on by one pair of principals, each with a distinct character and mood. The corps were radiant, and perhaps the most synchronous I have seen them dance; every movement initiated by the leading principals echoed so beautifully and subtley to completion. Alina Cojocaru danced a very regal Adagio, and Roberta Marquez and Stephen MacRae were show-stopping in the Allego Vivace. We had only a short snippet of the perfect pairing of Laura Morera and Ricardo Cervera,  but they just left us wanting more at curtain down. Perhaps only Leanne Benjamin let the side down a very little in the first movement, with a few wobbly turns. However, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this the final work of the night.

A triple bill that ranks very highly in my table of Royal Ballet mixed bill evenings - it will be interesting to see what happens to these bills when Monica Mason steps down as Director. She has been key in the development of these evenings that have become such a core part of the Royal Ballet programme.