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Cathy's response - "a simplified expressionistic version of the novel" in her own words - gives us a Prologue and 2 Acts with 17 defined scenes, danced with 19 named roles, over a period of 90-100 minutes. Even with the help of the scenario, itself two full programme pages long, the challenge to an audience to follow all of the action is considerable. (And it is always a challenge. Cathy does her homework and presents her work at a serious intellectual level, and invites audiences to engage with it accordingly.) Add to this the use of flashback and dual younger and older characters, and the challenge is compounded. Now I cannot claim to have met the challenge in full at a first viewing, but it was an immensely satisfying piece and Cathy's key themes - identity, redemption, and love - all shone through the complexity.

An air of revolutionary menace was established early in Act 1, through the knitting motif of les tricoteuses (here the formidable trio of Mme Defarge and Les Vengeances, danced by Victoria Sibson, Martha Leebolt, and Lori Gilchrist) and the use of threatening, slicing hand gestures. The target of that menace was personified with appropriate hauteur, arrogance and cruelty in Steven Wheeler's Marquis St Evrémonde. A scene in which he completed his morning toilette, stepping over his servants holding a gilded mirror to his magnificence, was a particularly effective cameo in the development of narrative context when contrasted with the circumstances of the mob.

When the action moved to London, the atmosphere was lighter: a truly delightful and inventive scene with a dance for four lawyers, four legal assistants, and four mobile desks - see it to believe it! - followed by a picnic scene. But most significantly, by now the physical similarity between Charles Darnay (Tobias Batley) and Sydney Carton (Kenneth Tindall), at the heart of the Tale's dénouement, had been established; Darnay and Lucie Manette (Keiko Amenori) had fallen in love; and Carton's hopeless passion for Lucie had been declared. Darnay and Lucie married and the action returned to Paris, where the mob finally revolted. Act 1 ended in a scene of fierce intensity as the stage filled with a stamping crowd, all repeatedly using that menacing hand gesture, and terminating in an indication that the Marquis and his family have been killed.

Act 2 moved from Paris to London and back as the story developed towards its conclusion - that "far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done" - when Carton exploits his similarity to Darnay to take his place on the guillotine, saving him to live on with Lucie, and as an expression of his own doomed love. The final ten minutes or so, covering the escape and departure of the Darnays to England and the moments before Carton's execution were quite heart-rending. And here I need to mention Dave Maric's score. Beautifully supportive of the dance to this point, it now became positively noble, and I would be fascinated to know whether it could be expanded to a fuller symphonic scale without loss of effect. It follows, I hope, that NBT's small orchestra had delivered this significant score effectively. (Significant? Arguably, yes - new full length ballet scores are hardly ten-a-penny these days in the UK.)

Keiko Amemori as Lucie Manette and Tobias Batley as Charles Darnay in A Tale of Two Cities
© Alastair Muir

That said, I have also to acknowledge the other members of Cathy's team. Jon Bausor, who has designed sets and costumes for so many of her earlier works, and who made possible the seamless transitions between the many scenes as the narrative progressed. Edward Kemp, who has helped Cathy develop the scenario here, but also in "Ghosts", and in her striking re-think on "Firebird" over in Bern. Peter Mumford, who made a fine job of the lighting is, I think, a new collaborator. After the show, David Nixon made a point of thanking all concerned for what they had given him and the company, and I can only concur.

As to the dance, there will no doubt be more expert comment here than mine. I have seen enough of Cathy's work to know that she can deliver highly effective pas de deux, and we had these here in scenes with Lucie and Darnay, and Lucie and Carton. Yet the lifts seemed different, more inventive, than many seen in the past, and the bonus was to see her develop action on a larger scale than before. Best of all, the company looked as if it was enjoying the experience, and I had the good fortune to hear some of them confirm that after the show.

The audience reaction, and everything I heard afterwards, suggests that NBT has added another successful work to its narrative repertoire. And Cathy Marston has made a significant step forward in her choreographic career. (A version of "Wuthering Heights" for her small company in Bern is, I think, her next major project - and we may see that at the Linbury next year.) For me, that leaves a question hanging in the air - why, after two years in residence at the ROH, this major advance did not happen there? That said, I am grateful and delighted that it happened at all in the UK, and I have no doubt it was worth the trip up north, so Many Thanks to David Nixon and NBT for their confidence that all would be well!

A concluding observation in these credit crunched days. Two good tickets for the excellent West Yorks Playhouse, plus a room at a reasonable hotel for the night, came out to about the same as two stalls tickets at the ROH.