One of Christopher Wheeldon’s greatest assets is his taste in stage designers, and it’s worth seeing this Cinderella just for the combined visual sorcery of Julian Crouch and Basil Twist.
Between them, they drive the ballet through a series of deftly dissolving pictures: a magic tree that grows from the grave of Cinderella’s dead mother; revolving walls, light-spun chandeliers and, most astoundingly, the coach that whisks Cinders off to the ball. It’s just four spinning wheels, puppet horse heads and a wind machine, but the wonder of it stops your breath.
These designs richly underpin Wheeldon’s decision to recast the rags-to-riches fairytale into a fable of the redemptive powers of nature and love. There’s no fairy godmother to rescue Cinderella from her wicked step-family, but woodland creatures, birds and a quartet of shadowy attendants who channel her mother’s ghostly embrace. When she and the Prince pledge their troths, it’s not in a ballroom but under the leaves of the magic tree.
Wheeldon’s other innovation in the ballet – created for Dutch National Ballet in 2012 – is to give the Prince a story. He’s a restless romantic – oppressed by palace life, looking for a girl who wants more than his crown, and is happiest with his friend Benjamin – a relationship Wheeldon choreographs with affectionate detail.
The choreography is generally fine – full of slanted, accented footwork and airily textured ports de bras. While it’s beautifully danced by principals Anna Tsygankova and Matthew Golding, everyone has a share. If I have quibbles, it’s that the ballet’s humour is trowelled on in crudely broad strokes and that the climactic duets revert too predictably to acrobatic lifts. But otherwise this is a clever, sweetly imagined Cinderella. It believes in magic but it believes in people, too.
- At London Coliseum until 11 July. Buy tickets at theguardianboxoffice.com or call 0330 333 6906.
