Liv Lorent and her eponymous troop dominate the Easter program at Sadler’s Wells East, with two retellings of Snow White aimed at different age groups. However, the adult version succumbs to its own poison apple.
Us reviewers are normally solitary little moles, burrowing from our nests to and from theatres across the city/country. Occasionally, we do meet up, sacrificing a young actor on a stone table and then having pastries and coffee. In a recent covenstead, we discussed the review by my colleague of balletLORENT’s family-friendly Snow White. His brilliant article was full of gushing praise, positive encouragement and four whole stars: as you might have guessed, mine will be slightly different.
A children’s show is very different to an adult one: a simple but clearly not universal statement. What we both agree on is the piece’s clear aesthetic value. Phil Eddolls has constructed a large cuboid centre stage, each facet a new setting. We have the queen’s bedroom/mirror room with a chest of drawers that spawn characters and props out of the compartments. There are the woods – all creeping vines, and the miners’ (stand-in for dwarves) cottage. The box is rotated, unfolding another realm, very much like a pop-up book. Libby El-Alfy and Nasir Mazhar have draped the dancers in all the brocades, linens and silks of the medieval world. Deer horns, masks and barely-there chiffons keep the eye entertained. Furthermore, the personification of the mirror in silver lamé is a highlight, its shimmering oily skin reflecting the gloomy palette of Malcom Rippeth’s fantastical lights. I can’t fault the little dancers from Cyril Jackson Primary School(see I have a heart) who lope on stage as various forest creatures and villagers. Adorable as they are tiny.
What I can fault, and will, is the whole premise of the “adult version”. Promising to “turn the tale on its head” it basically just runs through the already grim fairy tale in a similar vein to the original cartoon and recent films. Lorent’s choreography is prosaic, favouring spread-eagled legs, and extended toes but without much remit beyond physicalising the story from start to finish.
It seems that what I witnessed was the family-friendly performance with some “mature” editions. After our discussion, it all fell into place why the piece felt so disconnected. There is gratuitous nudity (normally my cup of tea) where the queen dreams of her new prince. Yet the scantily clad dancers appear in the next ball scene rather pointlessly. The need to extend more grownup sections disjoints the tale as a whole. A prime example is a random mooning from one of the miners in an odd, unneeded bubblebath scene. Carol Ann Duffy’s prose has moments of poetry but feels more like a smutty fan fiction than a true deconstruction of the themes at play.
The overreliance on the chronological narrative may serve a younger audience but as adults surely we can grasp something more complex? Exploring the narratives themes simultaneously and in a more abstract sense would be more interesting and the prerogative of dance. Instead we have awkward “conversations” where the performers stare meaningfully at one another while leaping around embodying the voiceover’s words.
Given the recent controversy over the new live-action film, I’m not sure I would suggest you just save your time and watch that. However, I question the need for another unimaginative retelling of this fairy tale, especially one that seems to have mildly X rated content shoehorned in. Haven’t we sacrificed (ehh?) enough time to this yarn already?
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