The thought crossed his mind. But there were so many versions of Romeo and Juliet, both on the ballet side and in theater and cinema, that he started to drag on.
“I felt I needed to find a new way to tell this story, and I didn’t see what new and surprising things I could bring.”, recalls the English choreographer Matthew Bourne. The turning point came five years ago: when the unclassifiable creator of Cinderella and Edward Scissorhands asked his young dancers what Shakespeare’s play evoked in them, they realized that he was witnessing the birth of romantic desire and the first sexual impulses. “It was this adolescent impulse, very animalistic and unfiltered, that I found interesting to set in motion. The fact that Romeo and Juliet inspired such different interpretations encouraged me to break a lot from the original plot. »
“Above all, I try to take the widest possible audience on a great adventure”
Matthew Bourne therefore propels us to a youth institution in Verona for an indeterminate time and place. Is this a mental hospital? Reformatory? A place of experimental imprisonment? We really don’t know and it’s not a big deal. At stake here is the adaptation of the youth that we want to limit and format. To make them good soldiers who will not challenge the dominant power… Like the elusive Romeo, whose excessive behavior forces his parents to have him interned there. “I didn’t want to impose any definitive image: it’s up to the viewer to create their own idea based on their sensibility,” explains the choreographer. These kids are weird, but not crazy. The goal of the establishment is to “normalize” the future generation, to cure them of all passions. » But this despite the newcomer’s love at first sight for the beautiful Juliette, pursued by the ardor of the warden who loves very young girls, which rekindles the passion of the residents.
In a clever environment that allows for a variety of atmospheres, Matthew Bourne creates a sequence of ensemble scenes where the dancers (with fluid gestures and feline flexibility) move in unison with a wonderful mix of energy and disillusionment and a very sensual pas de. two between young lovers. He reinvents the famous balcony scene by sending them into a chase that is as physical as it is sentimental. All this to the stirring music of Prokofiev. “I listened to his score again and tried to understand what was really in the music: I heard a nervousness, even a certain brutality, not a kiss we shyly placed on the other’s cheek, but a slightly violent attraction that we cannot control. With all due respect, I wanted to offer some arrangements to these tunes that evoke so much emotion. »
For thirty years – and in particular his Swan Lake, which closes Stephen Daldry’s formidable Billy Elliot (2000) and which brought him international recognition – Matthew Bourne has sought to invent a different way of dancing, combining highly theatrical scenography and a new discovery of movement. . “I’ve always been hard to label and I’m fine with that! » Therefore, he pushes the dancers in his troupe to develop their (silent) interpretation and advises them to see this or that film. “Above all, I try to take the widest possible audience on a great adventure. Like a movie in a cinema…”
“Romeo + Juliet” until March 28 at the Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris, 1.). chatelet.com.