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But the show is not all melodrama and death by any means. Bourne injects humour into his characterisations…..the awfully unsuitable Girlfriend, the lowlifes who frequent the seedy Swank Bar and the volatile Italian guests at the Royal Ball are just a few examples. Some of the gags are new this season but the old favourites are there too, including the unveiling of ‘that’ statue!

At tonight’s performance Christopher Marney danced the Prince, with Jason Piper as the wild Swan he conjures up from his tormented imagination. Marney is a fine dance actor, trained at the Central School of Ballet, who is reprising the role having appeared in the last tour. His expressive face and subtle, elegant dancing captured the essence of the lonely Prince, showing his yearning need to be loved, particularly by his mother. He is continually rebuffed by his mother, the Queen, danced by ex Royal Ballet star Nicola Tranah. She may be icy and aloof towards her son but when it comes to any other young man she changes into a flirt, actively chasing the handsome guards and picking out her favourites for future ‘attentions’.

It is no wonder that the Prince is flattered by the inviting ‘Terri-Belle’, the ‘Fergie’-based terror in the poisonous pink puffball gown, who lures him into a disastrous relationship , constantly under the flash bulbs of the paparazzi and press. Sophia Hurdley, sporting the longest fake eyelashes known to womankind, brought a sweetness to the role which made you realise that she is not completely rotten; she has some qualms about discrediting the Prince and accepting bribes from the Private Secretary. She is his dupe and pays the ultimate price in the end. Alan Mosley played down his role of the evil Secretary, always present but not the demonic caricature of some former performances.
 

And so, to the central figure, the dual role of the Swan/Stranger, on which for all its other component parts, the success of this show rests. Jason Piper is a strong, charismatic dancer, his Swan commands the stage and is quite mesmerising, He uses his arms beautifully and has the ability to isolate one ‘wing’ in a fluid movement, the muscles rippling along to the wing tip. He has a handsome, chiselled face with high cheekbones and a strong profile, accentuated by the darkened eyes and black crest of the swan make-up. His background in contemporary dance and acting means his Swan is a physically powerful presence, dominating the corps of lesser Swans, who provide a frame to his performance. The gorgeous central pdd between the Prince and the Swan and the Swan’s leaping solo were the highlights of Act 2.

The beauty of both White Acts (Act 2 by the Lakeside and Act 4 in the Prince’s bedroom) depend on the strength of this corps of male swans. Bourne layers the choreography, building patterns of swan upon swan, leaping in from the park gates and boundaries, and ultimately flocking into a threatening destructive whole in the final devastating scene.

This ensemble work is very well-honed both in the White Acts and in the Royal Ball. Here the corps has fun with the regional dances, especially the fiery Spanish dance led by the Spanish Princess, Pia Driver. I loved the tempestuous Italian Princess and her escort, danced by red-haired Kirsty Mather with Chris Keerie as her long-suffering, short-tempered boyfriend. As for the Stranger, well, all hell is let loose when Jason’s incredibly sexy Stranger struts across the parapets and ‘drops in’ to the Ball. Jason had said his Stranger is a ‘sexual terrorist’ (see interview link below) and he certainly delivered the goods! Perhaps the flagrant use of the riding crop as a phallic symbol is a little over-the-top but the magnetism of the leather clad seducer and the dynamic energy he possesses had most of the ladies on stage and in the audience wishing he were their partner!
 

This act also contains the fantasy ‘tango’ sequence where the Prince imagines he is dancing with the Stranger, who he recognizes as an incarnation of his beloved Swan. The lighting changes from a bright party atmosphere to an eerie, dreamlike blue. Lighting designer Rick Fisher is an expert in changing the mood of a scene readily by a sudden flick of a switch, indeed there are many clever lighting moments throughout the show. I particularly liked the effective use of elongated shadows in the ‘mad’ scene in the Prince’s room when he receives ‘treatment’ from the Doctor/Private Secretary and his team of Queen-masked nurses. This is a very scary scene where the strong shadows emphasise the Prince’s nightmare world.

The nightmare continues into the final scene, where the damaged Swan and the insane Prince meet their doom in the Prince’s bedroom. The huge bed is the focus for the swans; they emerge from under the bed and congregate in a hissing mass before attacking the Prince and the Swan. Both Piper and Marney were superb in this scene and a chill raced down my spine as the music carried me to an emotionally heightened state. There is something very special about this show that repeated viewing reinforces; the power and beauty of the choreography combined with Lez Brotherstone’s superb designs and the genius of Tchaikovsky’s score culminate in a performance which is visually stunning and emotionally fulfilling.

Interview link