A real cracker of a design by Tracy Grant Lord is wrapped around Scottish Ballet’s gracious telling of Cinderella. Colour is a spellbinding element: greens, blues and pinks, all simultaneously subtle and sumptuous, catch your eye as they cue action and sketch character. Down in the graveyard, branches curl in green-black art nouveau style. The moon surreally becomes a rose, a recurring motif. Chiffon, from black to pink, dresses the dancers and is also draped in the Hollywood ballroom. Scottish Ballet orchestra lends full force to Prokofiev’s thrilling 1945 score as dance and music are magically mixed to create a sophisticated beauty.
Choreographed by the Scottish Ballet artistic director, Christopher Hampson, this production was created for Royal New Zealand Ballet in 2007 and now receives its European premiere. It’s about time, too. The whole production is a treat – unhurried, thoughtful, elegantly playful – and, while the ghost of upstairs-downstairs politics prevails, it portrays Cinderella with a dignity encouraged by her mighty organza-clad fairy godmother (a wise-woman interpretation by Araminta Wraith).
Bethany Kingsley-Garner brings a charming stoicism to the role of Cinderella, who prepares for the ball with the help of 10 tutu roses poised in symmetry. The stepsisters, Eve Mutso and Sophie Martin, trip with sweet timing.
Black umbrellas shelter a huddled few on a dark stage as we arrive: Cinderella’s mother is dead. Hampson provides equally illuminating moments when he freezes mere mortals to a standstill, inviting lovers and fairies to dance as if invisible. Both the ballroom and the domestic manoeuvres are graceful, and the chorus-line legs near the finale create a mini wow.
This is no grim tale with no cinders either. It has a gentler touch; there’s a humanity among the spirits.
- At the Festival theatre, Edinburgh, until 31 December. Box office: 0131-529 6000.
