Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake on DVD

My recent exposure to The Car Man of choreographer slash director Matthew Bourne sent me to my Netflix queue to move Bourne's Swan Lake up the list. Yes, the homo-eroticism of both pieces is not lost on me and there-in lies at least part of my interest (I won't say which part).

Swan Lake made a big splash on both sides of the pond and ran on Broadway for several months--something unheard of for ballet. But this is not just ballet. While Bourne's choreography in The Car Man is firmly in the modern dance vein, his Swan Lake includes more styles, at least to my untrained eye. There is certainly ballet, but also modern, some variations on ballroom, and a send-up of historical dance.

The story told here is one of a lonely and confused young prince who is dominated by his cold mother, manipulated by the royal press secretary and uncommitted to his lower-class girl-friend. As he is about to throw himself into the lake, swans come to life as bare-chested men. The prince becomes enamored of the lead swan. Whether this is an hallucination by the prince is up to the viewer, I suppose. After not drowning himself, the prince attends a ball where a young man who looks just like the lead swan is announced to be his mother's fiance. The still confused prince becomes violent and is sedated and taken to his room. There he hallucinates again about the swans. When his mother returns to check on him, the prince is either dead or catatonic and we see him with the lead swan through the bedroom window. I've never seen a traditional telling of the story, so I can't say how Mr. Bourne has changed the story (apart from the gender switches).

Like Will Kemp (who is in the corps de ballet here, but later danced the lead swan) from The Car Man, Adam Cooper is a lovely, communicative dancer and very sexy as the lead swan/mother's fiance. He takes the brunt of the dance time, too, as Scott Ambler as the prince is a much more passive role and is often watching the action rather than making it occur. I was also struck by Mr. Ambler seeming too old for the role. This wouldn't have been an issue if I were seeing it on stage, but in close-ups, Mr. Ambler does not appear to be a spring chicken--er, swan. Fiona Chadwick as the prince's mother does some lovely dancing and has a great wardrobe.

I have to say this is not entirely a positive image for gay identity. The prince is ashamed and confused by his attraction to swan/fiance man. At several points the prince is mocked by taunting crowds. He becomes defensive and violent and only in death does he get his lover. The male swans are also very protective of the lead swan, and rather violent toward the prince, not allowing him and the swan to come together in the bedroom scene.

Isn't that just like a bunch of catty swans?

Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake
Music by Tchaikovsky
Story and Choreography by Matthew Bourne
Cast: Adam Cooper, Scott Ambler, Fiona Chadwick

The Car Man--stage version adapted for film on DVD

It's Carmen week here at The Year of Musical Thinking. My last entry was the version of Bizet's opera adapted by Oscar Hammerstein to the rural African-American experiences in the 1940s. Today it's The Car Man, Matthew Bourne's dance version of the story using Bizet's music updated to white America in the 1950s.

It must be the rampant sex appeal of this story which makes everyone want to adapt it for their time and place. And this version ups the sex and violence quotient; besides hot dancers in jeans and t-shirts (sometimes), there are a couple of bi-sexual characters, a lot of bludgeoning and a prison rape scene.

The Car Man never played on Broadway that I could discern, although Bourne's highly-touted all-male Swan Lake did make a splash on Broadway. This is a film version of Car Man adapted from the West End stage production , I believe.

Bourne changes Bizet's story in many ways (besides having the smoldering outsider be a man, rather than a woman). The Bizet music is used best when there is a strong sense of rhythm to hold on to (at least for me to hold on to, the dancers don't seem to have any trouble). The solo and duet dances are the most captivating, but the group numbers have a lot of athleticism to enjoy. I've said before, I don't know much about dance, but Mr. Bourne seems to have a large "vocabulary" which is based in the world of modern dance in this work. I'll need to see his Swan Lake to see if he dances other languages, too.

Some of the edits that are "outside" the theatrical staging are clumsy, but on the whole this is well filmed. Alan Vincent, who portrays the Car Man, Luca, is very sexy in the beginning, but is outshone in the second act by Will Kemp. I'm sure I'm not the first to admire Mr. Kemp, who is part of Bourne's usual group of dancers. Mr. Kemp is a beautiful dancer and a very expressive actor. He's making the transition to non-dancing roles, including Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet. Mr. Kemp also portrayed the horse Nugget in the Daniel Radcliff production of Equus, recently.

The Car Man
Story adapted and choreography by Matthew Bourne
Music by Georges Bizet
2001 stage show slightly adapted for filming
Cast: Alan Vincent, Will Kemp, Saranne Curtin, Etta Murfitt.