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A Clipped Story

“Edward Scissorhands”
New Adventures
Sadler’s Wells, London
22 November 2005 – 6 February 2006
 
By John Percival
copyright ©2006 by John Percival
  

Is it only me who sees the whole idea of Edward Scissorhands—the character and the story—as absolutely daft? I can’t believe that. Why would an inventor who makes a model boy furnish him, even pro tem, with scissors instead of hands, so that when said inventor dies the toy boy is left permanently with these useless appendages, but apparently alive so that he must attempt a real life with them. They tell me it was Johnny Depp’s performance in the film (which I never saw) that explained its appeal.  Surely Matthew Bourne didn’t imagine he could offer such a star in his ballet version—or did he suppose that his dances would do the trick?

Anyway, the programme notes reprove me by claiming “original vision and poignant fairy tale sensibility”; they also say that much of the film came directly from the life of its author and director Tim Burton! How can that be?  But I’ll try to accept that it’s a valid subject, although whether it justifies an eleven-week season in London’s main dance house, Sadler’s Wells (where most shows play one week or two), is another matter.

I’ll not try to outline the plot in detail, because there is no logical detail. We just get an unenthralling portrait of a small township—and here’s the occasion to give a cheer for the brilliant designer, Lez Brotherston. As on several past occasions for various choreographers and companies, his imaginatively apt, original, evocative and expressive settings and costumes do more than any other ingredient to sustain the production.  How cleverly he uses a few cut-out shapes to suggest the neighbourhood of houses; how brilliantly to takes us in and out of those dwellings; how visibly the persons are differentiated more by their clothes than their actions.  

Poor Edward, apparently involved by pure chance in this boring community, wanders through it with frequently puzzled expressions—“How am I to fit in?”—as he gazes at the blades which Brotherston has ingeniously given him instead of fingers.  Attached to gloves, they are more like shears than scissors: useful when he turns his hands to such pursuits as hairdressing or trimming bushes. But something of a nuisance in other, more personal relationships: how do you get him to partner anyone?  Answer—you cheat. You let him dance with the girl he adores, and who would like to be able to adore him, but you treat it as a dream sequence for which he removes the bladed gloves.   

Somehow Bourne fits in a sexy seductress, but her episode with Edward ends in comedy. And of course there’s a fight, and our hero finally dead, and to jerk a few tears there are a prologue and epilogue with an old lady mourning at a grave (the cast list tells us this is the not-quite girl friend, years later).

Music?  Regular collaborator Terry Davies has adapted and added to the original film score by Danny Elfman. It works well enough as background but hardly as inspiration.

Performances?  Competent but undistinguished. The dancers bring a wide range of experience with other companies and all but five of them (out of 30) have been in previous shows by Bourne.  He chose two to take turns in the lead; I saw Sam Archer who did OK but didn’t exactly thrill.

Choreography?  No, I can’t put it off any longer. Well, there were reservations even from reviewers who’ve liked Bourne’s earlier work better than I. In fact, there’s a wide feeling that the dances don’t amount to much at all. Maybe this matters less since I suspect that Bourne’s appeal is mainly to people who don’t really like ballet. He has taken to confessing himself, reluctantly, as Britain’s most successful living choreographer—i.e. his shows have long runs and frequent revivals. But note how he defines himself: deviser, director and choreographer, in that order. Right. Although he has borrowed music and subject matter from classic ballets for some of his most successful productions, film has always been the biggest influence on him; it’s no accident that for years the company he directed was called Adventures in Motion Pictures (hence its present successor New Adventures). He is a skilled arranger of bodies into patterns on stage, so his shows photograph well, and he seems adroit in making his performers give an impression of dramatic purpose. He always has a story in mind even if not always as clearly told and logically developed as one might wish, and he seasons it with a number of jokes. In short, Bourne is determined, ingenious, hard working and able to get others to work enthusiastically with and for him. What more could one want? Choreography, perhaps.

Photos (all by Bill Cooper):
First: Sam Archer in the title role.
Second: The "Barbecue Scene."
Third: Richard Wiinsor annd Michaela Meazza.

Volume 4, No. 1
January 9, 2006

copyright ©2006 John Percival
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last updated on January 9, 2006