We love Swan!

Back in Fife after a whirl-wind visit to Newcastle, Austwick and then back to Newcastle! So many highlights, seeing our friends and their family, neighbours and of course eating and drinking! However a major highlight has to be last Saturday evening at the Theatre Royal with Alan's brave stage door antics resulting in our programme from Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake being signed by the lead dancers!
So what of the event? Here is a totally bias review!
It’s hard to believe that it is 15 years since Matthew Bourne’s imaginative reworking of Swan Lake was first performed. Rightly hailed as a modern dance classic it has the rare combination of both longevity and freshness that keeps audiences coming back time and again. Our first viewing of the performance at Newcastle still has packed houses standing in appreciation and awe at the end a great welcome as mentioned to me by the cast socialising in the Adephi Bar after the show!

Even if you’ve never seen the show, you’ve probably seen the iconic male swans, with their muscular bare chests and rough feathered breeches. It’s the role you see the grown up Billy Elliot performing on stage at the end of the film. The flock of domineering male swans rather than the traditional female swan maidens is the twist for which it is most famous. But it is by no means the only quirk to this inventive show, which moves effortlessly from laugh out loud funny to heart-breaking tenderness.Keeping to Tchaikovsky's score, it opens with a sleeping prince, dwarfed in his super-king sized bed within the dramatic castle walls of Lez Brotherston’s surreal fairytale-like set. As he dreams we catch a glimpse of Jonathan Ollivier's powerful swan beyond the window – an image which is instantly striking and mysterious. Back in the waking world, the Prince (a passionate Dominic North), is stifled in tradition and repetition. He accompanies his mother (played with elegant coldness by Nina Goldman), on royal visits, waves dutifully to the crowds, while longing for affection that never comes. Much to the Queen’s distaste he is snared by a social climbing girlfriend, Madelaine Brennan, whose comic timing makes the character’s lack of etiquette a delight to watch. The result is both irreverent and hilarious, with the scene in the royal box at the ballet worth the ticket price alone. Rapped in such a world it is no wonder the Prince is despairing, but just as he can take no more the swans appear, their wild gracefulness offering a taste of freedom. It’s dramatic, funny, sexy, irreverent and, after 15 years, still bursting with energy. Also have to say the experience makes the DVD pale!
Then off to Austwick with Bill and Barrie enthused with the night before and into the Game Cock for Sunday Lunch. Monday in recovery and at Skipton Market with Tuesday a visit to Yew Tree Barn and Windermere for more shopping! Back on Wednesday to Newcastle so Barrie could have a good hair day on Thursday! Excellent Indian meal again and then back to Fife yesterday! But loving the Swan was a real memory of a genuine gay love story - shame they died but wow how they went!