28 ARTSTHE WEEK 24 August 2019DramaDance: Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet
Sadler’s Wells, London, until 31 August; then touring until 12 October (new-adventures.net) Running time: 2hrs ★★★★The story of Romeo and Juliet
is famously that ofa“mad
passion” between teenagers,
and the “naivety, enormity,
insatiability, delusion” of young
love, said Lyndsey Winship in
The Observer. But rarely can
this crazed spirit have been
captured so brilliantly, and so
intensely, as the great English
choreographer Matthew Bourne
does in this new piece of dance
theatre set toareworked version
of the familiar Prokofiev score.
This isacouple “so besotted
that they dance connected at the
mouth, one long snog as their
bodies roll and twist across the
stage”. From beginning to end, the “visceral” storytelling is
“ferociously” on the side of youth, said Sarah Crompton in The
Guardian–and the work is “stunningly danced” byayoung cast
led by Cordelia Braithwaite asa“radiant” Juliet, and Paris
Fitzpatrick asa“dreamy, innocent” Romeo. “Full of insight and
invention, this isathrilling rethinking of this tale of woe.”
Bourne’s big idea is to place the action inakind of reform
school (the “Verona Institute”) for wayward youth, said Debra
Craine in The Times. There are no Montagues, Capulets or rival
gangs. Instead, there’s “bullying and group therapy, raging
teenage hormones” and violent youthful frustration. “It’s strong
stuff, strongly delivered.” Youthfulness is crucial to the power of
this “brilliantly inventive” show, said Mark Monahan in TheDaily Telegraph: at each town
visited by the production, the
already youthful cast is joined
by six local performers, aged
16 to 19. All this results in a
production of “astonishing,
explosive, hormonal energy that
blazes across the stage”, and one
of the “smartest, sexiest, most
stirring shows” that Bourne
has ever created. “Is there any
higher praise than that?”
If Ihave aquibble, said
David Jays in The Sunday
Times, it’s that the third act
doesn’t maintain the preceding
momentum. Following Tybalt’s
death, the action becomes fussy
with detail and it feels wrong that this “doggedly resilient” Juliet
should enactamad scene “right out of 19th century opera”. But
overall this is “delivered with unceasing vim” and flair.The week’s other opening
ActuallyTrafalgar Studios, London SW1 (0844-871 7632).
Until 31 August
ThelasttimeAnnaZieglerhadaplayint he West End, it was
amajor event starring Nicole Kidman as the scientist Rosalind
Franklin. By comparison,Actuallyis a“modest two-hander”
about differing accounts ofasexual encounter between two
students. Even so, it’s an “important” play (Daily Telegraph).Slipknot: We
Are Not Your
Kind
Roadrunner
£9.99Twenty years on from their debut album,
the mask-wearing Iowan heavy metallers
Slipknot have remained “true to their core”,
even as their line-up underwent frequent
changes, said Jordan Bassett on NME.com.
That core involves being “drunk on rage,
self-disgust and lacerating, redemptive
nihilism”. And rarely has their aggressive,
relentlessly percussive music sounded
fiercer or more compelling than on this
“astonishing” sixth album–a“roaring,
horrifying delve into the guts of the band’s
revulsion,aprimal scream of endlessly
inventive extreme metal”.
Fans have drawn comparisons between
the new material and Slipknot’s stunning
career peak albumIowafrom 2001, said
Roisin O‘Connor in The Independent. The
main difference is that this album “allows
each member’s musical prowess to shine
through”. There’s no lack of “pummelling
force”, but the greater emphasis on melody
“allows you to consider everything without
being engulfed by noise”. It’sa“blistering”
triumph ofarecord.This passionate and unashamedly sexy
third album feels likeabig step forward for
English singer-songwriter Marika Hackman,
said Aimee Cliff in The Guardian. Compared
with her folky debut in 2015, or even her
experimental follow-up,I’m Not Your Man,
Any Human Friendis like listening toanew
artist. On this album she “soars through
electronic transitions, swears down the
microphone and wields her electric guitar”
with “full-on rock star attitude”.
When she arrived on the scene in 2015,
aged 22, Hackman seemed like ”another
English rose dipping into spectral
melancholy”, said Neil McCormick in The
Daily Telegraph. Her transformation into a
“swaggering, bolshie, sexy beast with an
electric guitar, dirty mouth and provocative
sense of black humour” is as surprising as
it is musically impressive. Even today, it’s
unusual to hearayoung female artist
“owning” her sexuality as “boldly and
bravely” as Hackman does here, on an
album that signals her “coming of age as
an artist with real purpose and star power”.In time, it’s highly likely that Hans Werner
Henze will be accepted as Germany’s “pre-
eminent” postwar classical composer, said
Richard Fairman in the FT. Since his death
in 2012, there has been no great bounce in
his reputation, but this excellent collection
of orchestral works–recorded by the BBC
Symphony Orchestra in 2014, under the
baton of Oliver Knussen–should help win
his musicawider audience in this country.
This isa“necessary and important
album”, agreed Geoff Brown in The Times
–“contemporary music at its ebullient,
intoxicating best”. Henze’s combination of
“German thoroughness and Mediterranean
spontaneity” is on full display in
Heliogabalus Imperator,a“riotous portrait”
of one of the least well-behaved Roman
emperors. And on the “cello concerto of
sorts” titledEnglische Liebeslieder(six
commentaries on English love poems) the
music “teems withaprofusion of textures
and colours”, conducted by Knussen with
“surgical skill” so that every element stays
crystal clear.Marika
Hackman: Any
Human Friend
AMF
£9.99Albums of the week: three new releasesHans Werner
Henze:
Heliogabalus
Imperator/Works
for Orchestra
Wergo
£15.85Stars reflect the overall quality of reviews and our own independent assessment (5 stars=don’t miss;1star=don’t bother)
Book your tickets now by calling 020-7492 9948 or visiting TheWeekTickets.co.ukBraithwaite asa“radiant” Juliet©J
OHAN PERSSON