United Kingdom Cinders!: Dancers of Scottish Ballet, Scottish Ballet Orchestra / Wolfgang Heinz (conductor). Edinburgh Competition Theatre, 5.1.2024. (SRT)

Creatives:
Music – Sergei Prokofiev
Choreography – Christopher Hampson CBE
Set and Design – Elin Steele
Lighting – Lawrie McLennan

Solid:
Cinders – Evan Loudon
Mom – Madeline Squire
Father – Benjamin Thomas
Mrs Thorne – Aisling Brangan
Morag – Grace Horler
Flossie – Kayla-Maree Tarantolo
Tarquin – Thomas Edwards
Princess Louise – Marge Hendrick
Duke of Orleans – Javier Andreu
Duke of Tonnerre – Aaron Venegas

Discovering a recent tackle a story as acquainted as Cinderella is a tall order, so Christopher Hampson, Scottish Ballet’s Creative Director, deserves a cheer for developing with one thing recent and attention-grabbing for the corporate’s restaging of his personal 2015 manufacturing. It comes all the way down to gender. In some performances, Cinders (notice the gender-neutral title) is danced by a girl and recused by the good-looking prince, whereas in different performances Cinders is a boy who’s delivered from his grim life by the intervention of a princess. In a pleasant contact, the viewers doesn’t know which model of the story they’re going to get till the curtain goes up.

It’s much more than a gimmick as a result of it forces the dancers to rethink their position within the story. In virtually each classical ballet, the assertive supply of vitality is the person, however when it’s the lady the whole lot needs to be framed in another way, and there’s additionally the frisson of thriller for the viewers as to which telling you’re going to get.

The idea sits inside Hampson’s larger thought for the piece, which is about in a clothes emporium slightly than in a fairytale kingdom. Cinders’ dad and mom run the emporium however, once they die in a hearth, the enterprise is taken over by the nasty Mrs Thorne who brings in her three ghastly kids. She permits Cinders to work there, however he/she is handled badly by the household. There isn’t a lot magic, however what there’s comes from the spirits of Cinders’ dad and mom slightly than from a fairy godmother. Elin Steele’s pleasingly sturdy units look terrific, as do the Victorian period costumes, and there’s a lovely breath-catching second for the happily-ever-after closing tableau.

This tour spent the month of December in Glasgow’s Theatre Royal; I noticed it on its first evening in Edinburgh, when Cinders was danced by … a person! Firm Principal Evan Loudon danced the position with athleticism and vigour, although he cuts such a muscular presence on stage that you’d by no means for a second think about him being oppressed or put down by Mrs Thorne’s household. Once they torment him by ripping up the invitation to the ball, he may simply have lamped them and gone alongside anyway! Fellow Principal Marge Hendrick danced the princess, retaining the femininity of the half whereas bringing out the truth that she is in the end in cost.

Hampson’s choreography is beautiful to take a look at it, if a bit limiting for Hendrick’s princess. There are rather a lot of leaps and pirouettes, and I usually wished she had been given a bit extra to do. She involves life most in her attractive duets with Loudon’s Cinders, which barely undermines the thought of difficult the piece’s energy dynamic. The opposite elements are properly taken, nevertheless. Because the Thorne kids, Grace Horler, Kayla-Maree Tarantolo and Thomas Edwards carry out with a neat mixture of slapstick and narrative vitality, and I appreciated the pair of Dukes, who mirror each other properly whereas offering extra than simply background presence. A number of the crowd scenes, notably on the ball, appeared a bit congested, which is odd when the corps de ballet is barely sixteen folks, although they might nonetheless be getting used to acting on the Edinburgh stage for his or her first evening there.

After all, the central drawback in performing Cinderella is Prokofiev’s rating. Even for a composer who wasn’t above reverting to autopilot, his rating feels uninspired and insipid once you examine it to just about every other classical ballet, not least his personal Romeo and Juliet. Scottish Ballet’s orchestra play it with as a lot panache as they will muster, and Wolfgang Heinz conducts it by making the rhythm the central aspect, however simply what number of lopsided waltzes are we anticipated to place up with in the midst of a night?!

The true attraction right here is the visuals. Hampson’s manufacturing appears nice and is commendably simple to comply with. Extra importantly, the gender thriller aspect makes it recent and stunning. How usually are you able to go and see a classical ballet and genuinely not know what you’re going to get?

Simon Thompson

At Edinburgh Competition Theatre till 20 January, then touring to Aberdeen, Inverness and Newcastle till 10 February. For data click on right here.