Edward Scissorhands - Lisa Rinehart

"Edward Scissorhands"
Matthew Bourne
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn, New York
March 14 - 31, 2007

by Lisa Rinehart
copyright ©2007, Lisa Rinehart

Don't go to Matthew Bourne's "Edward Scissorhands" looking for depth, or for a delicate Burtonesque fable. Go for a good time. With an eye for caricature, Bourne has blunted the edginess of Burton's deliciously odd movie and whipped up a snappy cartoon of suburban agita that's smart and entertaining. The downside of Bourne's talent as a showman is that, while he nails the high octane blaze of suburban self-satisfaction, Edward (endearingly played by Sam Archer) comes off as a poster child for cute strangeness. Even with shears flashing, Bourne's Edward is unthreatening, almost cuddly, and Burton's fragile artist — the oddity able to reveal people to themselves — is reduced to the dorky guy simply trying to fit in.

This flaw, however, figures larger in theory than in the overall success of the show. Bourne builds on Burton's florid suburbanites and peoples Lez Brotherston's pastel hued tract houses with six families of four whose sort of fifties dress and broad mannerisms speak volumes about American notions of conformity. We have the conspicuous consumers, the social do-gooders, the religious fanatics, the slovenly blue collars, the sexually predatory, and the frightfully good Boggs who take Edward in. A driving sequence in which each family is corralled behind a steering wheel to screech around in their own idiosyncratic style is spot on and hysterically funny. Bourne's crack timing and herky jerky movement give his dances a refreshing strangeness, and detailed characterizations developed by the dancers go way beyond the cliche. In fact, each character has enough back story to support several sit-com spin offs, and it's sometimes frustrating that one can't catch everything. (This is a compliment. There are worse predicaments than having too much good material to see.) The pleasure here is that we recognize these people in all their exaggerated TV land technicolor, and it's fun to watch Edward trying to find his place amongst them.

Bourne expertly crafts Edward's adventures into colorful danced vignettes. There's a barbeque bash where Edward gamely skewers shish kabobs on his hands as the neighbors boogie in the backyard. Topiary figures dance an abstract ballet before Edward moves on to clipping wild up-does for all the ladies. A night spent in young Kim Boggs' room as posters of nubile cheerleaders come to life clinches Edward's chaste love for her. And there's Edward's attempted deflowering by the local desperate housewife (the unabashed Michela Meazza) which leaves her jiggling to the washing machine's spin cycle for satisfaction. Although Bourne has been quoted as believing himself to be more storyteller than choreographer, every scene is packed with precisely edited movement that makes sense.

Edward never fits in, of course, and the story's pathos is in how he, the freak, opens a girl's heart to unconditional love. Bourne translates this into a pas de deux between Edward and Kim (Hannah Vassallo) in which Archer partners Vassallo literally without hands. It's an obvious metaphor — the long blades can cut her at any moment — but Kim pulls Edward close, choosing to risk the dance for the sheer joy of experience. Even more magical is when Edward sends showers of ice crystals flying while sculpting a giant ice angel love offering for Kim. Bourne uses Danny Elfman's other-worldly theme from the movie here to great effect, and it makes one long for a few more such moments of quiet sincerity.

Some have dismissed this "Edward Scissorhands" as little more than another commercial success for Bourne, but that view is based on a preconceived idea of what this show should be. Go with an open mind, (preferably with some children under the age of 16), and you may be surprised how enjoyable it is to see fantastically well done narrative dance. It's not subtle, and it isn't brimming with intense sub text, but there's an appealing honesty in the extremes. This is Bourne's Edward, and despite some shortcomings, he's easy to love.

Photos by Bill Cooper.

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