Matthew Bourne's Cinderella

Hooray! I've never seen it, one more to tick off my Bourne list!

Booking for this opened yesterday.

I haven't seen this one yet, so looking forward to it.

I've never seen any of Matthew Bourne's work live but decided to give the BBC broadcast of this a go on the iPlayer. I thought it was very well acted but wasn't so sure on all the dancing. For starters, I found it odd that in 2 hours of ballet none of the women did any work en pointe. Some of the dancing was more like what I'd expect to see in a musical than a ballet.

I have a couple of queries that I'm wondering if anyone who's seen it live might have any ideas about:

Did the dancer playing Cinderella's Father also double as the Maitre D' character in the party scene?
Did the party scene actually take place or was it just Cinderella hallucinating after being knocked out in the air raid?
Why did Cinderella's Stepmother suddenly try to suffocate her. I mean, I know they didn't like it other but that seemed very extreme & seemed to come out of no-where.

While I don't think I'll be rushing to see any live Bourne any time soon, it was interesting to see this one. It was also wonderful to have a telecast of an arts event that didn't have some celebrity presenter burbling on fatuously beforehand & in the intervals. This had no presenter at all & was much better for it in my opinion.

He did.


Apparently it didn't happen! I found that all very confusing but I did see something on twitter confirming that it was a dream. I guess it explains why the stepmother shoots the dad in the dream because it makes no sense otherwise.


I've got a book which is interviews with Matthew Bourne about all his shows up to 2011. It's funny that there's never a summary of what is happening in any of his programmes (apparently his shows are crystal clear, I don't agree) but there's still a book which does have a lot of explanation in. The Cinderella chapter is about 60 pages long. It explains that all the step family have abused her in the past and they are worried that if she's having psychiatric treatment she will tell them what has happened so the stepmother wants to silence her. There was a prologue in previews when the show was first performed about 20 years ago that had young Cinderella seeing the stepmother kill her mum but apparently it was confusing so it got cut but the suffocating stayed. Very confusing! 

I'm most definitely not going to tell you to do that! I am also a fan but I am definitely not a fan of his choreography or story telling. Stupidly I was a fan of one of the dancers before he joined the company which led to liking more of the dancers and I go to watch them rather than the story. I like seeing everyone dance each role at least once so I go and see each production a couple of times even if they don't make sense. I was definitely not a fan of Red Shoes and I now feel that everything Matthew Bourne does gets good reviews and sells out because it's Matthew Bourne and not because it's amazing.

Exactly! The Red Shoes was the final straw for me.

I love Bourne's work but agree Red Shoes was maddening. I put it down to not knowing the film at all, but I think the general consensus was that it was just really unclear. 

Also re: ballet, correct me if I'm wrong someone (sincerely) but I don't think Bourne has ever claimed to do ballet- his work has always been in contemporary dance. What he does really well is fuse styles and influences within shows- tap with contemporary, taking ballet and fusing it with contemporary etc. 

I agree though his storytelling within them isn't always the best, and he should really be employing a dramaturg type person (or getting a better one if he does already!) to sort that out. 

It's only Red Shoes and to a degree Scissorhands I've struggled with which I put down to not knowing the source material well...so perhaps it's something in the style of his newer productions?

Ah so it is...ah well who bloody knows then! Ah well at least the dancing/dancers are pretty to watch! 

If you want confusing, try Play Without Words, though I do think that piece to be rather brilliant. I do love Bourne's work, though sometimes there is too much parody - there's usually a club scene or theatre scene which gives him license to mock other forms of dance, but Swan Lake, Car Man and Dorian Gray are brilliant. I find Cinderella lacking a central clear idea, and Sleeping Beauty was just, to me, rather unsubtly cashing in on all things then currently vampire. He is supported by tremendous designers, lighting, costume. I wish he would stage his glorious TV film 'Late Flowering Lust'