REVIEW: CINDERELLA

Birmingham Royal Ballet, Mayflower Theatre, until January 28

Review by Jane Sullivan

RAVISHING costumes, beautiful music, stunning sets, and sensational dancing; put them together and what have you got? Birmingham Royal Ballet’s exquisite production of Cinderella, currently on stage at Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre.

Every little girl’s favourite fairytale, Cinderella is made for ballet, and David Bintley’s version entrances from its dark opening played out in silhouette at the graveside of Cinderella’s mother, to the dazzling ending when the two young lovers walk into the dawn of a new day.

It really is a visual treat. Brilliant use of lighting enhances John Macfarlane’s striking sets and glittering costumes. The transformation from Cinderella’s bleak scullery to the star-studded world of the Four Seasons is remarkable; bleached walls fall away to reveal inky blue skies and a fairy godmother in a dress that seems as if it’s weaved from smoke. Costumes are magical all round, gorgeously lit to make them seem iridescent. When Cinderella arrives at the ball through the mist, her twinkling tutu makes her look like a star fallen from the night sky.

Bintley’s choreography mirrors Prokofiev’s score; played with beautiful lightness of touch by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the music carries the dancers through their complex routines of leaps, spins and dazzling lifts.

Dancing is superb throughout. Momoko Hirata’s Cinderella is a tiny wisp of a thing, who brings a poignant sadness to her scenes with her brutal stepmother and stepsisters, and uplifting radiance to her duets with Joseph Caley’s dashing young prince, who makes her seem lighter than air.

There are light touches, too, from the dancing rodents and reptiles, and stand-out comic performances from Samara Downs and Southampton’s own Laura Purkiss as stepsisters Skinny and Dumpy. Their scene-stealing dances at the ball are laugh-out-loud funny, and their bumbling maliciousness contrasts wonderfully with the icy indifference of their mother, played by Marion Tait.

Add a carriage looking as if it’s crafted from spun sugar, and a clock that fills the entire stage, ticking down the seconds to the end of Cinderella’s dream, and you have a production to entrance all ages.

Cinderella has been reimagined in a thousand ways, from panto to film, but this is in a different class. A fairytale evening all round.