Swan Lake Reloaded: to Aug 10, 2013

Swan Lake Reloaded

London Coliseum,
English National Opera
London Coliseum
St. Martin’s Lane
London WC2N 4ES

Perfs: Aug 6, 7, 8, 9 (mat 5.30 & 8.30) 10 at 7.30pm

TICKETS: www.eno.org (£1.75 booking fee applies)
02078459300 (£3.50 booking fees applies)

Runs 90 mins without interval

Review: by Carole Woddis of performance seen Aug 6, 2013

Tasty dish – if not for all tastes.
Summer is the time for visitors. After National Theatre of Scotland in Peckham, it’s Swedes in the West End with Swedish dance wunderkind, Fredrik Rydman in his dynamic new take on Swan Lake at London’s Coliseum, alas for all too short a stay.
Eat your heart out Matthew Bourne. This `re-interpretation’ radicalises even further the imaginative gloss Bourne put on his all-male version, one of his most successful ever creations.

Rydman – currently Creative Director for the Swedish Version of X Factor and Eurovision Song Contest interval acts – is a showman who also ran his own highly successful company, Bounce Streetdance for 13 years and is not afraid to mix styles.

So here, snatches of original Tchaikovsky sit side by side with electro-static mixes, strobe lighting, slo-mo, break-dancing, hip-hop all rolled into a dark hued narrative that sees Rothbart re-invented as a leather clad pimp/drug dealer, the swans as black booted and white fur draped drug addicted prostitutes with a Siegfried who in his ultimate despair turns his gun mistakenly on his beloved, Odette, setting off a fire-storm of feathers.

Nobody could call Rydman’s Swan Lake dull. Nor, strangely could you call it unnecessarily sensationalistic. It carries all the tropes of vulgar populism – garish, primary colours; cat walks, and some very silly post-mod dress designs
Yet. Rydman’s break-dancing choreography carries consistency, speed, skill and great wit – the four cygnets perform their pas de quatre lying prostrate with their feet and toes all a-wiggle – whilst the original in music and storyline still drives all before it.

In Robert Malmborg, too, Rydman has a dancer any company would give their eye’s teeth for. Slim, denim suited, with a face that conveys innocence and anguish his body has a snake-like sinuosity that spans styles whether breakdancing or in more conventional mode. He it is who holds the whole razamatazz show together. Whilst Rydman never loses an opportunity to have a dig at tradition – his female dancers happily do not fit the usual anorexic demands – the cumulative effect is not only intensely moving on occasions but respectful and successful in recalibrating young lives trapped by evil for our dizzy, digitalised technological age.

Characters:

Odette: Maria Andersson
Swan, Bride and the Daughter of the Mother’s friend: Lisa Arnold
Siegfried’s Friend: Alexandro Duchén
Rothbart: Daniel Koivunen
Siegfried: Robert Malmborg
Swan, Bride and Friend to the Mother: Anna Näsström
Siegfried’s Friend: Mario Perez Amigo
The Jester and The Father: Fredrik “Kaos” Wentzel:
Odile, Swan and The Daughter of the Mother’s Friend: Ambra Succi
The Mother: Jennie Widegren
Swing, The Mother, Swan, Bride and The Mother’s Friend: Eva Gardfors
Swing, Siegfried’s Friends: Martin Jonsson
Swing, Swan, Bride and The Daughter of the Mother’s Friend: Kristina Kjellsson
Swing, Rothbart and Siegfried: Robin Peters
Swing: Victor Mengarelli

Original music by Piotr Tchaikovsky
New composed music by Adiam Dymott, Eye N’I from PH3, Salem Al Fakir, Lune, Moneybrother, Skizz from Stockholmssyndromet, Mario Perez Amigo. Simsoak

Idea and Choreography: Fredrik Rydman
Scenography: Fredrik Rydman and Lehna Edwall
Graffiti Artist/Art Décor: Daniel “Mr Puppet” Blomqvist
Lighting Design: Linus Fellbom und Emma Westerbeg
Costume and Make-up: Lehna Edwall
Hair Styling: Peter Andersson
Assisting Choreographer: Jennie Widegren
Dance Captain: Lisa Arnold
Projections, Graphics: Grafala, Andreas Skärberg, Johan Andersson and Mathias Erixon
Mastering Music: Carl-Michael Herlöfsson
Décor and Stagecraft: Visual Act
Tailor and Cutter: Karin Höeg
Tailor: Anna Mossberg and Asa Jonsson (squiggle over the cap `A’)
Costume Painting, Costume and Sewing: Lisa Askevik
Props Maker: Leo Thörn and Björn Kronsell
Hatter: Therese Högelin
Costume Painting: Lotta Rudman
Translator: Sophie Vänerlöf, Total Translations

Producer: Blixten & Co

London Coliseum perfs: Aug 6-10, then Casino de Paris (Oct 1-27); St Petersburg (Nov 8-10);
Moscow (Nov 13-27)

2013-08-12 10:21:30