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Thursday’s show received a very enthusiastic response from the audience ( many gave a standing ovation), and at least half of them stayed for the post performance talk, filling the entire stalls and some of the first circle. I’ve never seen so many people stay behind for a talk before !

Adam was interviewed by Donald Hutera who posed many questions, kicking off with the rather clichéd ‘What’s it like to be a sex symbol?’ Let me add that Donald is very witty and he was just teasing Adam to get things started!

Most of the discussion centred on Adam’s decision to stage Les Liaisons after watching the film starring John Malkovitch and Glen Close in the early 90’s. Adam said he has always been attracted by the darker roles ; to play someone who gets pleasure from hurting others is fascinating as in real life he is a ‘nice guy’ and wouldn’t set out to hurt anyone. After seeing this film and another called ‘Valmont’ starring Colin Firth and Annette Benning he went back to the original book by Choderos de Laclos and then read the play. He found most inspiration from the book, finding that he could then be free to create his own visual imagery based on the letters.

Adam’s collaboration with Lez Brotherston stemmed from their friendship which dates back to them meeting during Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake. Over a six year period they swapped ideas and built up a ‘plan’ for staging Liaisons. Lez introduced Adam to Philip Feeney the composer, who Lez had worked with for Northern Ballet Theatre’s Dracula. Philip immediately had incredible ideas for the musical score, for example using an electronic harpsichord and creating a recorded audio soundscape behind the live music.

The premiere in Japan took place in Feb 2005, and was produced by Tokyo Broadcasting System inc. The response from the audiences in Japan was extremely supportive and the tour lasted for four weeks including Tokyo and Osaka.

Adam chose his cast (his ‘dream cast’) according to the ability of the individual dancer to tell their story and to show their character. He had to persuade his wife Sarah Wildor to take part as she was reluctant at first. He felt Sarah was ideal for Mdme de Tourvel as she could show the depth of emotion required for the character. He chose Helen Dixon for Cecile, having worked with her in Singin’ In The Rain, because she was a great performer, he had not seen her pointe work at the time and he did not therefore base his choice on her classical ballet technique, but rather that she could convey the innocent, ‘fluttery’ young naive girl.

In creating the choreography, Adam chose different styles for different characters. Mdme de Merteuil had a snake-like, sexy style; Cecile had a classical style, Mdme de Tourvel was classic but with an earthy quality, something which Adam said Sarah was not generally used to dancing.

The discussion continued with various questions from the audience which included queries about the chance of a tour (a possibility) and how the dancers found the stamina to perform seven shows a week (‘Drugs’ was Adam’s answer, but only of the ginseng variety it turns out).

Apologies if I have missed any details or made any mistakes, if anyone was also there please correct me!