Ballet - Sleeping Beauty

Performance: Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty
Date: 1st December 2015
Location: Sadlers Wells, Angel, Islington, London.
Seat: Second Circle, Row O, Seat 16
Rating: 4/5

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty is my third ballet experience. Unfortunately I felt I went in with a bit of a prejudiced opinion after seeing Cinderella at the Coliseum in July, and feeling like nothing could possibly match this. Whilst Sleeping Beauty was incredible and beautiful, there is no denying that, I felt it lacked something.
The music for Sleeping Beauty was composed by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1889, and first performed the following year. Along with Swan Lake and The Nutcracker it is among Tchaikovsky's longest lasting and most famous repertoire. Tchaikovsky is quite possibly my favourite composer, therefore I loved the music, it was incredible. It is hard to understand why Tchaikovsky hated his music so much. However Sleeping Beauty was not played live, rather it was pre-recorded which I felt took away from the magic slightly.
Bourne, like Wheeldon with his contemporary take on the ballet, changed the story slightly. Instead of a spindle which pricks Aurora and sends her into her sleep, it is a rose. Furthermore, Bourne used the different acts to be set in different periods of time, for example the last act was set in the modern day as opposed to the first act which was set in the 1800's. The first three acts, I felt worked really well, fitting in with the classical tropes of fairy stories and ballets with beautiful glittering costumes and props. However, the modern act, Aurora's marriage, I felt took the magic away from the ballet and the fairy story, with the characters dressed in jeans and hoodies. This to me felt like a betrayal of the enchanting and mystical nature of the fairy tale, and I feel one of the beauties of watching the ballet is seeing the intricate and exquisite costumes that are presented, which compliment the beauty of the dancing. Moreover, unfortunately I found the storyline a little muddled and hard to follow. The ballet was marketed as a Gothic Romance, and this came into play with the fairies. However, it was hard to decipher whether the fairies were good or evil, and what role they played within the story. The man that falls in love with Aurora also gets some sort of vampirific transition at the end of act II which was just a bit strange. I understood the practicality of it, it meant that the man she loved could then live 100 years to eventually wake Aurora up, but it just didn't fit in well with the storyline, and I felt there could have been better ways around this plotline.
Bourne, must however, be commended on the fantastic use of puppetry in the first and final acts. The young, baby Aurora, is represented through puppetry and it was just wonderful. The movements of the puppet looked so realistic it took me a while to establish it was in fact a puppet and not a child. It was incredibly clever and was the subject of quite a lot of mischievous humour, much like a child which me and the audience appreciated immensely. 
Additionally the staging exceeded usual expectations. The stage had two conveyer belts at the back which the fairies in particular stood on and danced, and it really added some interesting and wonderful dimensions to the dancing, making the fairies look like they were truly floating. The transition of time between the four acts was conveyed wonderfully through the staging, with the windows being broken and taped and the closed gates growing ivy and trees. It goes without saying that the choreography and dancing was breathtakingly beautiful and wondrous, as they usually are.
Overall, I did enjoy Sleeping Beauty immensely, the music, set, costumes and dancing was beautiful. I just felt at times the plot and storyline was confusing and hard to follow, the characters hard to decipher who was who, and some of the classic tropes of ballet and fairy tales were taken away, which in turn took away some of the beauty of the ballet and the story.

Theatre - Lulu

Performance: Lulu by Frank Wedekind
Performed by: Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Date: 2nd December 2015
Location: Silk Street Theatre, The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Barbican, London, United Kingdom
Seat: Unreserved (Near the front at the centre)
Rating: 4.5/5

It is that time of the year again when Guildhall puts on its Christmas show, and as per usual it exceeds expectations by being truly wonderful. Lulu was written by Frank Wedekind in 1895 and is formed of two plays Earth Spirit and Pandora's box (however in contemporary theatre it is condensed into one play under the name of Lulu as this performance was). Lulu is among Wedekind's most popular works along with Spring Awakening.  It depicts the dark but deeply humorous tale of the alluring and beautiful Lulu and her many (many!) sexual experiences and relationships with men and women alike, and the descent of each into destitution or death, and finally Lulu's descent herself. Lulu evaluates many different issues which are hugely relevant even in today's society. Lulu herself represents that of the strong empowered feminist trapped in the patriarchal society of the late Nineteenth century. Despite being an active character and the centralised theme of the plot, every plot, action, endeavour and achievement is governed by a man often through marriage, in which she can only escape through death. Her promiscuity and adultery only goes to further this view point, that she cannot escape marriage, nor does she want to, for she fears being alone, without the male dominance above everything else.  The play portrays an incredibly dark side to human sexual nature and particularly male sexuality and the affinity toward younger girls. Wedekind's own life is perhaps reflected within the play with his deep rooted jealousy in his own marriage, his utter scorn for adultery and his belief sexual allure and sex was the only thing to keep his marriage alive. We can see familiar attributes in Lulu's character in conjunction with Wedekind's in her desperate need for validation from her husbands, her constant erogenous presence through her actions, her outfits and her speech, and finally her ultimate demise at the hands of a man, as a result of her constant philandering.
Lulu is deeply sexual and strangely liberating for a late Nineteenth century play. It appears Wedekind enjoyed to push social boundaries and causing a stir with his exploration of the fiercely private sex life, marriage and its mockery through Lulu's satirical adultery and lesbianism, these same tropes can be seen through Spring Awakening, essentially a critique of the privacy of sex, and the consequences of such prudishness. It is hard to imagine in a world dominated by sex, that such plays would be so frowned upon, but the Nineteenth Century was one dominated by the private sphere, sexual repression and prudishness.
Guildhall's production of Lulu was absolutely fantastic. The staging was incredibly simple, but effective. The most powerful staging was the photographs of the actresses playing Lulu in different (incredibly sexual, I might add) poses, which then turned to paintings, which were both creative and interesting. This was particularly powerful in Act I when Lulu is being painted and the photograph was the pose in which she was striking on stage.
A further striking but brilliant feature of the Guildhall interpretation of the play, was at the end of each act, the actress of Lulu changed. I was initially hesitant with this idea but felt it worked well and was portrayed cleverly with each previous Lulu handing a prop to the next Lulu in scene changes, almost passing the torch if you like. It made for an interesting portrayal, as each Lulu slowly sank into demise.
I furthermore, couldn't write a review without mentioning the music that was written especially for the play. The music by Alex Hall, a composer at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, was very potent and interesting. It was very dark, eerie and ethereal, particularly in Act III, with the jazz influenced movements. The music complimented the dark plot beautifully.
Overall, Lulu by Guildhall was a fantastic take on a fantastic play. It illuminated some very interesting and dark issues, with some very clever humour, which took some relief from the essentially incredibly depressing end to the play. It is with great regret I announce tonight was the last performance of the play, or I would urge all to go and see it!