The thought crossed his mind. But there were many versions Romeo and Juliet, both in ballet and in theater and cinema, that he overstretched himself to begin with. ” 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 to the table. », recalls the English choreographer Matthew Bourne.
The trigger came five years ago: by asking his young dancers what Shakespeare’s play evoked in them, the unclassifiable creator Cinderella AND Edward Scissorhands they realized that they saw it as the birth of romantic desire and the first sexual impulses. ” It was this adolescent impulse, very animalistic and unfiltered, that I thought was interesting to set in motion. The fact that Romeo and Juliet inspired such different interpretations encouraged me to stray a lot from the original plot. »
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 form their own idea based on their sensitivity, 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 we don’t count the newcomer’s love at first sight for the beautiful Juliette, pursued by the ardor of a warden who loves very young girls, which rekindles the passion of the frontiersmen.
It is a youth issue that we want to limit and format
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, trying to understand what was really in the music: I heard a nervousness, even a certain brutality, not a kiss we timidly 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 especially its Swan Lake, which closes the impressive Billy Elliot by Stephen Daldry (2000) and which made him internationally known – Matthew Bourne tries 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… »