Acclaimed director and choreographer Matthew Bourne has given Norfolk and Norwich Festival organisers one of the gems of this year's line-up. Highland Fling is the latest Bourne piece to be brought to the Norwich Theatre Royal. It is one of the four-time Olivier Award winner's earliest productions which he has revisited in order to stage it for bigger audiences. The ballet is based on the 19th century La Sylphide by Filippo Taglioni, but anyone who is expecting a faithful performance will be surprised. As ever, Bourne has boldly taken a story and transported it to a modern setting with his trademark wit. This time it's Glasgow and the main character of bridegroom James is tempted by a beautiful Sylph who takes him from his streetwise existence to a mystical place. Highland Fling is just one of Bourne's current projects. Play Without Words, which came to Norwich last year, is running in America, he's co-directed and choreographed the West End musical Mary Poppins and is about to start work on a dance production of Edward Scissorhands. Matthew Bourne talked to Martin Barber ahead of the Norwich run about why he's re-launched Highland Fling and the balance he has to achieve in his work to keep both his highbrow and mainstream fans fulfilled. Norwich is pretty much a second home for you and your company. Yes, it's one of the most consistent venues we've been to over the years. We've got a really good relationship there with Peter Wilson [Norwich Theatre Royal's chief executive] and all these people who come back and see us. Every time we go there we seem to build on the audience... so it's always nice to come because we've got such a history. What do you think it is about your work and Norfolk audiences which seems to have such a synergy? I do think it's got a lot to do with story-telling. Dance is popular these days but not as popular as musicals, straight plays and cinema, etc. The reason this company has gone a bit beyond the dance following is we always tell a story and at heart, what people like about going to the theatre or cinema is that. People know that they're going to see something which is entertaining but challenging as well because of the form it's in. It's dance theatre and it requires you to use your imagination - it's not straight forward.
 | | A scene from Play Without Words |
My company is known for being funny as well as moving. You get a bit of everything in these shows. I think people know they're going to have a surprising experience. That's the word I like to use - it's surprising rather than shocking. Some people have written that our work has a shockability value, but I never think that is the case. It's full of surprises and the audiences have grown to really enjoy that. But shockability has to be based on where your starting point is, doesn't it? Exactly. It's one of the things that looks good written down, but the reality is that you think about the pieces you're doing and try to bear in mind everyone in the audience. When it comes down to it, it's giving people a good night out in a basic way and I think my company guarantees that. There's always something new and something to excite us and surprise us, and that's why people come back, I hope. What made you go with Highland Fling because as a company it's one of the oldest pieces in your repertoire? There are lots of reasons. A lot of the people who have come to know the company in the last few years will not have seen this piece. They may have heard about it or read about it but they will not have had a chance to see it because it was performed in very small venues for a very limited amount of time. It's one of my strongest dance pieces - having just done Play Without Words which was veering away from a lot of dance - I thought it would be nice to go back to something with almost the most dance I'd done. It's proved very successful on the tour - almost a surprise success, I would say, because the audience numbers have been fantastic for a piece people maybe don't know. How have you changed it for the new audiences? It was originally done with seven performers and it's still quite a small piece. There are only 11 people in the show now so there are an extra four, so it's bigger in that sense and it had to be re-choreographed quite substantially. The sets have been made more 3D. It's like a new production, it's not really a revival in many ways. It's got a lot of new choreography and a larger cast. Also, in the years since I made it, I've learnt so much more about audiences and story-telling without words, so in many ways there's a lot more in it than there was. There's a lot more humour, there's a lot more tragedy, there's a lot more depth to the characters and the story. Is it a difficult line to tread between creating a production for hardcore dance fans and creating a production for theatre lovers? I am aware of it and I do try to tread that line. I'm very conscious that I want the dance audience to respond and respect what I'm doing, so I'm always very true to the music and I honour the music in the way I see it - I don't mess around with the music. I also keep quite closely to the essence of what the piece was originally about. If it's a ballet... I try and make links which the dance audience will appreciate and they'll think, 'Ah, I can see what he's done there with that idea, that was in the ballet.' I try to steer away from being accused of vandalising the piece. But also when I'm making a piece I don't just want to make it for the people in the know. I have to separate myself from all that and go, 'Well, if I know nothing about this and nothing prior to seeing this, will I get it?' I feel as though I've pulled that one off because I'm always thinking about it. It's not something that ever goes out of my head. I've seen the photos and you appear to have been blessed with beautiful costume design and lighting. How much do you get involved with that? It's always a collaboration and I always work in these pieces with Lez Brotherston as a designer. He's done most of my pieces which have come to Norwich apart from The Nutcracker which I did with Anthony Ward. We talk about it in a general way and he will go away and do these beautifully painted and realised drawings and show you what he thinks. And you'll say, 'I love that' or 'That's not quite right' or 'Let's try this colour.' It's definitely a collaboration in that sense. Working with Lez, you find you have a shorthand after a while - that you can trust each other. It's set in modern-day Glasgow and you've got that urban street edge with the boys. It's an interesting blend of styles. Well, it's not modern day now. We set it when we made it which is about 10 years ago - the late '80s, early '90s was the time we set it in. One of the themes is the drug and club culture of that time, which may be less relevant now. They all play characters and in the second half they all become Sylphs. There is one Sylph in Act One, but the guys all become Sylphs in the second half as well. They wear white kilts with sashes, like a traditional Scottish costume but in white and the women have white dresses. Where did the whole kilts and Scotland thing come from? The original ballet has always been set in Scotland. It's know as the Scottish Ballet. The hero has always been called James and he wears a kilt. It has a Scottish theme and is based on a Scottish myth, I think. So the idea was already there and I looked at that and thought let's make it modern day. The film Trainspotting had just come out which was a little bit of inspiration for the piece and those characters - not directly but it's a feeling. Let's talk about the jet-set world of Matthew Bourne. You're all over the place - why and what are you working on at the moment? The reason I'm travelling so much is because of reasons that weren't completely planned. Several of the shows became successful and were invited to go to other places and they've all happened at similar times. The new production of Swan Lake was launched last year and that's touring. So there's that, and then Play Without Words which we played in New York and is currently in Los Angeles for eight weeks and then that's going to Moscow and that's the third year of doing that piece so we'll put that to bed for a while after that. Of course, Highland Fling has been touring and we made that at the same time. And on top of all that, I've been doing Mary Poppins as well. Is that choreographing for the West End production of Mary Poppins? Yes, I co-directed it as well with Richard Eyre. I enjoyed it a lot. It was great working with other people and sharing the responsibility of a show. It's always a pleasure, particularly when you get on so well as we all did. It was a pet project of mine. I wanted to be involved in Mary Poppins when it happened. I talked to Cameron Mackintosh 10, 15 years ago and said, 'Please, if you ever get a chance to do it, can I work on it some capacity?' And I've been working on Edward Scissorhands which is coming out later in the year. Is that a dance version of the Johnny Depp film? Yes, try to imagine that! [He laughs] We rehearse it in September and then open it Plymouth for a try-out week and then we are at Sadler's Wells all through Christmas - like we have been for the last few years - and we do 11 weeks there and then we tour it around the country and you'll see it in Norwich next year. | 
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