Review - Bourne's Dorian Grey and Hadrian at the BM
Matthew Bourne's Portrait of Dorian Grey premiered at Fringe in August, where it got a huge bag of very mixed reviews, before heading down here to Sadler's Wells, London's modern dance mecca. I must admit that I was a little hesitant about how the book would translate into dance, but then I saw the poster and decided it was a must see. . .for the eye candy if nothing else. And, admittedly, Bourne has something of a reputation of doing this in a very interesting way.
And so, how was it? I think I'm going to hold to interesting. The dancing was amazing, as it should be, and the first act was bordering on really quite incredible. The rise and foreshadowing of the fall was very skillfully done. The sex-scenes were jaw-droppingly good - just stylised enough that it didn't descend into mere hip thrusting but raw enough that the emotional fireworks were still very real. The gender swapping for Lord Henry (Lady H) and Cybil (Cyril) worked extremely well I thought.
So where didn't it work? Well, they didn't have a portrait, instead substituting a doppelganger who haunts Dorian and eventually replaces him. It meant you still had the dramatic rise and fall, which worked well in itself, but if you didn't read the programme then the potential for getting very lost and confused was high. To me, it became a very different story, probably very in keeping with Bourne's intention, but to me didn't hold the same eerie, horrific decline as what comes through in the book. It became less self-destructive and more lashing out through frustration. Valid emotions in the context of the story, but not the same and I must admit kept me from engaging fully in the second act.
That said, I'm very glad I went to see it and it definitely gave me a goodly bit to think about and mull over for a while. As a translation through medium, the jury is still out.
The new exhibit on at the British Museum, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict was very good, but, both raayat and I thought that it was actually a little shallow. Probably because there isn't a lot about Hadrian that has survived the ravages of time. The definitely highlight were the portrait sculptures and the section on his villa. They had a scale model with loads of explanation. You could have easily spent a couple of hours in that section alone (and I think if hunger hadn't started to kick in, R would have). We went ahead and opted for the audio guides, which turned out to be a very good move, since there were lots of extras on details that weren't in the main exhibition. If you decide to go, definitely get the audio guide. A very good exhibit, but probably suffers following on from the Chinese Warriors, which was incredible.
And so, how was it? I think I'm going to hold to interesting. The dancing was amazing, as it should be, and the first act was bordering on really quite incredible. The rise and foreshadowing of the fall was very skillfully done. The sex-scenes were jaw-droppingly good - just stylised enough that it didn't descend into mere hip thrusting but raw enough that the emotional fireworks were still very real. The gender swapping for Lord Henry (Lady H) and Cybil (Cyril) worked extremely well I thought.
So where didn't it work? Well, they didn't have a portrait, instead substituting a doppelganger who haunts Dorian and eventually replaces him. It meant you still had the dramatic rise and fall, which worked well in itself, but if you didn't read the programme then the potential for getting very lost and confused was high. To me, it became a very different story, probably very in keeping with Bourne's intention, but to me didn't hold the same eerie, horrific decline as what comes through in the book. It became less self-destructive and more lashing out through frustration. Valid emotions in the context of the story, but not the same and I must admit kept me from engaging fully in the second act.
That said, I'm very glad I went to see it and it definitely gave me a goodly bit to think about and mull over for a while. As a translation through medium, the jury is still out.
The new exhibit on at the British Museum, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict was very good, but, both raayat and I thought that it was actually a little shallow. Probably because there isn't a lot about Hadrian that has survived the ravages of time. The definitely highlight were the portrait sculptures and the section on his villa. They had a scale model with loads of explanation. You could have easily spent a couple of hours in that section alone (and I think if hunger hadn't started to kick in, R would have). We went ahead and opted for the audio guides, which turned out to be a very good move, since there were lots of extras on details that weren't in the main exhibition. If you decide to go, definitely get the audio guide. A very good exhibit, but probably suffers following on from the Chinese Warriors, which was incredible.