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Unfortunately, as a soppy southerner, I only get to see NBT when Leeds comes to London once a year (which I suppose is rather more often than London ballet goes to Leeds) but this Spring visit of Northern Ballet Theatre is now one of my not-to-be-missed annual highlights.

This year’s visit to Sadler’s Wells brought David Nixon’s new version of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’: a ballet he first choreographed whilst Artistic Director of BalletMet in Columbus. One of the reasons I love NBT is that it single-handedly keeps alive a British tradition of creating new three-Act, story-telling ballets. One new ballet a year would be going some but Nixon’s innovative three-season reign has already added six new productions to the company’s repertoire.

His peculiar retelling of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ may not suit the purists but it respects the essential structure and narrative of Shakespeare’s comedy whilst placing it into a new and unquestionably unique context. Our protagonists are part of a touring ballet company from the late 1940s, a discipline which provides the essential character hierarchy that the narrative requires. Theseus is the company’s Artistic Director; Hippolyta is the ageing prima ballerina; Puck is the Ballet Master; Bottom is, appropriately enough, the Stage Manager; whilst Lysander, Demetrius, Helena and Hermia are the principal dancers. It may seem strange but the concept works well and it was easy to establish the characterisations without having prior knowledge or reading the programme notes beforehand.

As the audience arrives, the company is warming up on stage and this leads directly into Act I which takes place in the ballet studio on Midsummer Day as the company prepares for a performance of ‘Romeo & Juliet’. The various love entanglements which make ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ the prototype ‘bedroom farce’ are played out in relation to the casting of ‘Romeo & Juliet’. Theseus tells his future wife, Hippolyta, that it is time for her career to end and is persuaded by Puck (the ballet master, remember) to cast his protégés, Demetrius and Hermia as Shakespeare’s tragic lovers, but Hermia, of course, prefers Lysander who in turn has jilted her best friend, Helena. An everyday tale of a commonplace ballet company!

My one concern was that the juxtaposition of Mendelssohn, Brahms and Prokoviev in this first Act wouldn’t work musically but the transition from Mendelssohn’s first movement into Prokoviev, from full orchestra to on-stage piano, and back again was seamless and John Longstaff has done a wonderful job with the musical arrangements.

The middle of the story, from the last scenes of Act I to the final scene of the third Act, takes place, in one way or another, on a Sleeper journey from Kings Cross to Edinburgh Waverley. In this context Duncan Hayler’s set design is impressive. Not only does he give us the exterior and interior of a 1940s Pullman train but also the train, upside down, speeding through Theseus’ eye as a metaphor for the dream sequence. Whilst the set is definitely one of the stars of the piece, the complications of the transformations for the departure and arrival sequences were an extravagance, for these brief divertissements do little to enhance the narrative or the choreography. It was also quite a while before I realised that the suspended piece of machinery was, in fact, the upside down train and not something that had got lost on a journey from Star Trek.

Oberon’s dream, occupying the whole of the second Act, is introduced by a very topical corps of Legolas ‘look-alikes’ performing to Mendelssohn’s Dance of the Elves and accompanied by a band of fairies with the largest wings ever seen. Act II is entirely faithful to the Dream’s narrative and ends with a very beautiful and lyrical pas de deux between Theseus and Hippolyta. Having got through the night and decamped at Waverley Station, Act III ends with the curtain calls after an obviously successful opening of ‘Romeo & Juliet’ and the subsequent announcement of the three couples’ engagement at the backstage party. As always, it is left to Puck to draw all the threads together in the prologue.

This is a company that can dance as well as act. The outstanding performers were Hirano Takahashi and Desiré Samaai, as Theseus and Hippolyta. Both are exceptionally gifted classical dancers. When Takahashi performs entrechats quatres the legs cross effortlessly every time with clearly beaten feet and whilst his jumps are not the biggest, they are perfectly formed. As is often the case with dancers who struggle to deliver the truly virtuoso steps, his adagio work is a delight to watch and a case study for aspiring dancers in terms of its perfect execution. Samaai fully deserves to have been up there amongst the nominees for best classical dancer in this year’s Critics’ Circle awards and she should win this accolade sometime soon. I found her to be enchanting as the feeble and abused Isabella in ‘Wuthering Heights’ and even more so here. The gentle pas de deux of reconciliation between Takahashi and Samaai at the end of Act II, with choreography that was evocative of both MacMillan and Cranko, was beautifully danced.

Performances throughout the cast were excellent. Christian Broomhall, one of the dancers to follow Nixon from Ohio, was an extraordinarily young ballet master but he managed to disguise this well; Jonathan Ollivier (Lysander) has a commanding stage presence and is well matched in the virtuoso stakes by Christopher Hinton-Lewis as Demetrius; Keiko Amemori (Hermia) and Pippa Moore (Helena) completed the lovers’ roll-call, dancing fluently in the roles that were created on them. There was also a very funny and extremely camp performance by Stephen Wheeler as the Wardrobe Master.

This was an extraordinarily inventive production which succeeded at every level. In Hollywood pitching terms it was “MacMillan meets Bourne”, with a big emphasis on powerful neo-classical choreography melded with a strong, familiar narrative in an unfamiliar setting and an extraordinary set. ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ plays at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield from 20 – 24 April, at the Milton Keynes Theatre from 28 April – 1 May and at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking from 18 – 22 May. I doubt if they will be travelling by Sleeper to any of these venues but it’s a nice thought!