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Theatre listings > A contemporary re-working of the classic ballet La Sylphide by Auguste Bournonville(1836). Choreographer – Matthew Bourne. Artistic Director - Matthew Bourne. Set and Costume Design - Lez Brotherston. Lighting Design - Paule Constable. Associate Director - Etta Murfitt. Music - (from the ballet La Sylphide) Hermann Severin Lovenskyold. Dancers - here . Company – New Adventures – Company Website. Venues and Dates - Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 26 – 30 April, 2005.Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 3 – 7 May, 2005.. Tour details. Run Time – Act 1, 40 minutes, Act 2, 40 minutes, one interval.. Reviewer – Vivien Devlin. Intelligent, imaginative ...stays true - and fun. In 2005, the dance world celebrates the 200th anniversary year of the great Danish choreographer Auguste Bournonville. His ballet La Sylphide, premiered in 1836, was in fact a reinterpretation of the original version created by Filippo Taglioni four years earlier. La Sylphide was like nothing seen in dance before, dividing critics, thrilling audiences across Europe and hailed as the voice of the new generation. The fable about a young disillusioned hero – a Scottish Highland peasant - in search of true happiness and love expressed the modern angst, subversive behaviour and fashionable Romantic movement of the time. Matthew Bourne, the choreographic genius behind numerous updated classics such as Swan Lake and Nutcracker!, first created his own contemporary version of La Sylphide in 1994. In this revival of Highland Fling, Bourne has extended the ballet into a full scale, more elaborately designed production with double the cast. The basic fanciful, fairytale storyline remains true to the original ballet except in time and place: Setting, Glasgow, 2005. James, our romantic Scottish hero, is engaged to Effie, a pretty, neatly dressed, girl-next-door and he and his mates are enjoying a stag night spree at the Highland Fling nightclub. We first meet James, (played on first night by handsome, dark haired James Leece - think of Ross in Friends) as he bursts through the door of the Gents toilets a little the worse for wear after a wild night of drink, drugs and dancing. Dressed in the modern street-cred look of kilt, boots and leather jacket, he staggers in and collapses on the floor. Through an hallucinatory dream, he imagines a beautiful winged female creature, half human, half bird. But before he can catch her, the sylph has vanished. His friends, all in kilts or bright tartan trousers, come to find James and drag him back to the dance floor. Here Lovenskyold’s bold and boisterous score – with a snatch from Brigadoon - comes to the fore as the whole ensemble jive and jig the night away. The morning after and James and his friends have crashed out in his high rise council flat. The interior design is a mind blowing catastrophe of Scottish kitsch– tartan wallpaper, curtains, armchair, lamp, Saltire flag. As he wakes from his drunken sleep, the sylph appears to him in a fleeting moment. She is a mischievous free spirit and he is captivated as she flies around the room. Their first pas de deux is a pure visionary delight, a beautiful romantic partnership between the pale-faced, lithe, feather-light fairy figure of Noi Tolmer and the tall, dark, kilted Scotsman. But the wedding must go on. This is where Bourne enjoys a great deal of humour within the choreography when the reception turns into a ceilidh. The dancers throw themselves into an energetic whirl of twirling, reeling and Highland flings with complex footwork which would surely win prizes at the Mod. But party over, James has to decide between his bride, Effie or the Sylph. Act II and the setting is the woodland home of the Sylphs, aka a rubbish dump for an abandoned VW Beetle and old sofa. The ensemble of ten male and female sylphs, in white flowing kilts and dresses, dusted with subtle green light, creates a mystical and magical mood. The dancing is a clever balance between exquisite, graceful balletic sequences and playful, sexy fun as James pursues the elusive sprite of the air, the love of his life. In this outrageous, radical reworking of La Sylphide, Matthew Bourne has thrown every possible Celtic cliché at it. Tartan tourism tat, Brigadoon, Auld Lang Syne, Jimmy Logan singing "I love a Lassie", but it works. This is no silly comical pastiche. It works because it is intelligent, imaginative and stays true to the ethereal spirit of Taglioni and Bournonville’s vision, to Highland legends and 19th century Romanticism. Wistful and enchanting, it still - despite a contemporary Trainspotting setting - captures the timeless notion of idealistic love and the pursuit of youthful dreams. ©Vivien Devlin, 26 April, 2005 - Published on EdinburghGuide.com Dancers - James - James Leece, The Sylph - Noi Tolmer < Ensemble – Ross Carpenter, Adam Galbraith, Paulo Kadow, Rachel Lancaster, Gemma Payne, Lee Smikle, Mikah Smillie, Mami Tomatani, Hannah Vassalo, Shelby Williams, Philip Willingham. Tour Details of New Adventure's production of Highland Fling. Tour begins 12 – 19 Feb at 7.45pm also Thurs & Sat Mat 2.30pm Bromley Churchill Theatre 0870 060 6620. 22 – 26 Feb at 8pm also mats Wed and Sat 2.30pm High Wycombe The Swan Theatre 01494 512 000. 1 – 5 March at 7.30pm, Wed and Sat mats at 2.30pm London Sadler’s Wells 0870 737 7737. 15 – 19 March at 8pm, also Wed and Sat at 2.30pm Woking New Victoria Theatre 01483 545 900. 22 – 26 March at 7.30pm, Thurs and Sat 2.30pm New Wimbledon Theatre 0870 060 6646. 29 March – April 2 2005 at 7.30pm, Thurs 2pm, Sat 2.30pm Salford The Lowry 0870 787 5790. 5 – 9 Aoril at 7.30pm, Thurs 2pm, Sat 2.30pm Newcastle Theatre Royal 0870 905 5060. 12 – 16 April at 7.30pm, Thurs and Sat 2.30pm Plymouth Theatre Royal 01752 267 222. 19 – 23 April at 7.45pm, Thurs and Sat 2.30pm Brighton Theatre Royal 0870 060 6650. 26 – 30 April at 7.30pm, Sat 2.30pm Edinburgh Festival Theatre, 0131 529 6000. 3 – 7 May at 7.30pm, Thurs and Sat 2.30pm Glasgow Theatre Royal 0141 332 9000. 10 – 14 May at 7.30pm, Thurs and Sat 2.30pm Norwich Theatre Royal, , 01603 630 000. International Dates. 23 June - 10 July on Tues, Thu and Fri 7.00pm, Wed 2.oopm/7.00pm Sat 1.00pm/6.00pm Sun 1.00pm, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space, Japanese official website: http://www.la-sylphide.info/ Tour ends.
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