Northern Ballet - Romeo and Juliet (Maillot) - Spring 2015

[Jan McNulty]

I saw Geneva Ballet performing this version of Romeo and Juliet in 2000 and have to admit to being less than whelmed by it so you can imagine how I felt that Northern Ballet would be performing this same production by Jean Chrisophe Maillot.

 

OK, so it's 15 years later, I've seen a lot more performances of different works, I'm older, not necessarily wiser but my tastes may well have changed and, of course, I know Northern Ballet.

 

The Northern Ballet premiere of this production was in Edinburgh last night.  The house looked pretty packed and there was a definite buzz in the audience.

 

What can I say ... 15 years later I was swept away by the performance I saw last night!

 

The curtain opens and Romeo is sat at the side of the stage.  The set is very minimalist ... curved white screens on various sizes and a ramp, all of which were moved round to create different settings.  As the overture is playing the screen on the right hand side shows the credits for the production and the main casting.  A surprise but welcome.  Talking in the interval to the gentleman sat next to me he thought it was a brilliant innovation.

 

Friar Lawrence pulls everything together in this production; he is an anguished soul who thinks that the romance between Romeo and Juliet will bring peace to the warring factions.  On the opening night Isaac Lee Baker was magnificent in the role.

 

Romeo and Juliet were danced by Giuliano Contadini and Martha Leebolt,  Romeo is very gauche and almost innocent in this production.  Juliet is more knowing and, although they are attracted to each other it is she who takes the lead.  Both these dancers gave a wonderful interpretation of their characters and had a great rapport.  Martha has got to be one of the best dance actresses of the current generation and it is always a privilege to watch her.

 

Matthew Koon was spectacular as Mercutio and Sean Bates joyous as Benvolio,  Javier Torres' brooding performance as Tybalt dominated the stage.  Lucia Solari as Lady Capulet both wanted to see her daughter married to Paris but also perhaps felt the pain of her daughter facing an arranged/forced marriage - a wonderfully layered performance. Antoinette Brooks Daw was a delight as the Nurse, a girl not much older than Juliet perhaps which made perfect sense of how much she helped Juliet achieve her aim of marrying Romeo. Joseph Taylor was an effective Paris but in this production has comparitively little to do.  Abigail Prudames was a slinky Rosaline.

 

The costumes were timeless but if anything reminded me of Etruscan or Ancient Greek costumes.  The ladies dresses flowed beautifully and I really liked them.

 

At the start of Act 2 there was a "puppet show" which I didn't care for but apart from that I liked the choreography very much.  It took Northern Ballet's dancers right out of their comfort zone and they looked absolutely fabulous in their new zone.  A major plus of this production are that there is no prolonged death scene for Mercutio or Tybalt!

 

I found the production to be modern and compelling and I can't wait to see a couple more performances in Leeds next week!

[Jan McNulty]

Dance Europe have published a stunning gallery:

 

http://www.danceeurope.net/gallery/romeo-and-juliet-ch-maillot-northern-ballet

[aileen]

Do you know who did the costumes, Janet?

[Jan McNulty]

Jerome Kaplan!

[aileen]

They're not as outrageous as the costumes for the Maillot Lac.

[Bruce]

Q) You are Romeo and find yourself in a production that has apparently forsworn the use of all swords and daggers and reach the final act crypt scene... how do you kill yourself?

A) Run across the stage at very high speed and dive onto the pointed end of a wedge shaped grave.

Simple really!

[Bruce]

Thought I saw you up there Janet.  Although I found myself laughing at the way Romeo decided to dispatch himself I should say I also hold some more positive thoughts on what is a good looking production. But don't think it will last anywhere near as long as the  Gable/Moricone version did.

[ambros1a]

I saw this cast this afternoon Janet and I thought they were terrific.  I saw Maillot's Lac in London last year and didn't warm to it.  I think this is a much better ballet.

[Bruce]

Duh - forgive me - I left poison off the list. You are all very kind in not mentioning and it suddenly came to me while consuming this mornings tea in bed!  Hopeless. So here you go:

Q) You are Romeo and find yourself in a production that has apparently forsworn the use of all poisons, swords and daggers and reach the final act crypt scene... how do you kill yourself?

 

 

Q) You are Romeo and find yourself in a production that has apparently forsworn the use of all swords and daggers and reach the final act crypt scene... how do you kill yourself?

A) Run across the stage at very high speed and dive onto the pointed end of a wedge shaped grave.

Simple really!

[Bruce]

Since seeing this production I discovered an interview by Mary Brennan in the Glasgow Herald:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/stage/a-romeo-and-juliet-that-goes-straight-to-the-heart-of-the-matter.118732707

Brennan interviews Jean-Christophe Maillot and David Nixon. Nixon puts the new ballet in context wrt NB repertoire:
"Nixon is, however, quick to reassure Northern Ballet's loyal followers that an earlier (and much-loved) Romeo and Juliet - created by Christopher Gable, Massimo Morricone and Lez Brotherston - is not about to drop out of the company's repertoire."

And I think that's wonderful - it is a piece to shake people up, but shaken a time or two is probably sufficient. For me anyway!

Nice piece by Brennan in highlighting the different drivers that went into the creation of this modern R&J.

For a coolly critical look at the Maillot's R&J its worth reading Alastair Macaulay's review of Pacific Northwest Ballet performing it in NY a couple of years ago:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/arts/dance/romeo-et-juliette-pacific-northwest-ballet-at-city-center.html

Edited March 8, 2015 by Bruce

[Terpsichore]

Having seen Seymour and Fonteyn as Juliet in my youth and having seen more recently Xander Parish and Viktoria Tersehkina in the Mariinsky's Romeo and Juliet and Friedemann Vogel and Alina Cojocaru in English National Ballet's and with Birmingham Royal Ballet's sensational Coppelia fresh in my memory I feared that Northern Ballet's Romeo and Juliet last night would be an anticlimax. It was anything but. It might have disappointed me had it tried to ape MacMillan or Lavrovsky, but it didn't. It was entirely original while remaining faithful to Shakespeare.

But not slavishly faithful. There's a puppet show but no sword fights in Jean-Christophe Maillot's Romeo and Juliet. Tybalt clubs Mercutio with a blunt instrument for which he is strangled by Romeo. There's a bedroom scene but Juliet is not in her nightie. She's sitting on her bed with her nurse when Romeo arrives. When she first sees him Juliet tries to thump him one as she is beside herself with rage and despair having learnt what her husband had done to her cousin. The biggest innovation is the pivotal role that it gives to Friar Lawrence. In most ballets and in Shakespeare's play he is a minor character solemnizing the marriage and supplying the drug that knocks Juliet out cold. But in Maillot's ballet he is a much more important and interesting character. He's the do gooding cleric whose clever wheeze to bring peace to Verona backfires disastrously. The ballet opens with him the friar and he remains on stage at the close. In that respect Maillot has not just rewritten the ballet. He has actually rewritten Shakespeare and perhaps improved on the play.

Maillot's choreography is not pretty but it is dramatic. The dancers individually and in pairs or groups adopt unusual shapes. At many times I was reminded of Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham. There was extensive use of mime. Emotion was transmitted with clarity and immediacy. There were some delightful touches. The balcony appears as a slope and Juliet slides down into view as Romeo appears. He helps her down. She shakes her legs as he lowers her down communicating a frisson of excitement and not a little apprehension. In the wedding scene a length of fabric is cleverly transformed from veil into an arch indicating a chapel.

I should at first say something about the designs for they are nothing like Pyotr Williams's in the Mariinsky's version with its landscape vistas or the lushness of Nicholas Giorgiadis's in the MacMillan version. Ernest Pignon-Ernest's set is compact and functional.  Ideal for touring perhaps but a little austere. My heart sank when an image of a church, the title of the ballet and the names of the dancers were projected onto the stage as in a PowerPoint presentation in the overture. Were we to be treated to a flickering light show? I wondered. But that was the only use of the technique and elsewhere Dominique Drillot's lighting was effective. Particularly the partially inverted cross in the crypt scene. It interacted well with Jérôme Kaplan's costumes and the set. They appeared bland and almost monochrome at first but the understated use of colour prepared us for delight at Juliet's shimmering gold ball dress.

And now the dancers. Where do I begin?

I saw my beloved Northern in a completely new light last night. I knew Tobias Batley to be dashing and handsome from his other work but he communicated sensitivity and even vulnerability last night.  I also saw another side of Dreda Blow.  I had last seen her as Mina in Deacula in which I had admired her dancing but did not warm to her. I was surprised when I heard that she had been cast as Juliet. I had expected Leebolt in the role, of course, but I would have chosen Pippa Moore as the alternate Juliet. Casting Blow for the role was an inspiration. She was a perfect Juliet. Playful and feisty. Loving but conflicted. Brave but fearful. Blow is elevated to my pantheon of favourites.

But we still got Moore as the nurse. This is a character role and she danced it beautifully. She is also a complex and conflicted character that demands much from a dancer. Again, it was perfect casting.

 

The pivotal role, as I said before and also in my preview is Friar Lawrence. He reminds me of the preacher in Appalachian Spring and of the minister in Gillian Lynne's re-staging of A Miracle in the Gorbals. He appears not in a habit but in a suit and dog collar. It requires a strong and dramatic dancer and we found strength and drama in Isaac Lee-Baker. This is a strenuous role and amazingly he is performing it night after night in both casts. 

 

There were strong performances also from Hannah Bateman as the haughty Lady Capulet,Mlinde Kulashe as the headstrong Tybalt (another bit of inspired casting and another career for me to follow), Joseph Taylor as Paris, Abigail Prudames as the lovely Rosalne - the list could go on but then it would read like a telephone directory. Nearly all my favourites had a role yesterday including Rachael Gillespie and Kevin Poeung. Why do I like them especially? When they move they make my spirits soar. Why's that exactly? Dunno. Maybe it's because they love their dancing so. It reminds me of a story about Sir Peter Wright that one of my favourite dancers from the Birmingham Royal Ballet once related but I won't go into it now.

 

Unlike many balletomanes I like to let a ballet sink in before I see it again, even with a different cast. A matinee and an evening performance on the same day or even in the same season is usually too much for me. But I think I will make an exception with this work. I am dying to see what Leebolt, Contadini, Brooks-Daw and Torres make of this show.

 

And I shall get the chance to see them tomorrow evening in the last performance of the run.

Edited March 11, 2015 by terpsichore

[Terpsichore]

I saw Romeo and Juliet again last night this time with Martha Leebolt and Giuliano Contadini in the title roles.

 

It was, of course, very good. How could it be anything else with Leebolt as Juliet, Contadini as Romeo, Antoinette Brooks-Daw as the nurse, Javier Torres as Tybalt, Lucia Solari as Lady Capulet, Sean Bates as Benvolio and Matthew Koon as Mercutio not to mention another impressive performance by Isaac  Lee-Baker  as Friar Lawrence. But somehow some of the sparkle of Saturday night was missing. That was surprising because the last night of a run is often the best. Especially when a show has received excellent reviews as this one has as well as great feedback from the audience.

 

The absence of sparkle was not the performers' fault. The dancers danced their hearts out as they always do and the Sinfornia played well. But theatre is a two way communication. A great show needs a great audience as well as a great cast and last night's house was definitely not the same as Saturday's. For a start there were fewer of us. The stalls where I sat were nowhere near full. And they were plenty of distractions. The Grand is a very noisy auditorium at the best of times. There's a light rumble whenever someone shifts in his or her seat. But when a file of latecomers take their seats in the middle of the first Act it sounds like a tube train. Worse, there were giggles at certain points such as when Juliet with her back to the audience slips off the top of her clothing before her embarrassed nurse or when the lovers envelope themselves in a sheet in the bedroom scene.

 

Leebolt, who has danced all the major roles in Northern Ballet's repertoire, was magnificent but she was much more like Cleopatra than a teenage girl. There were times when that was good. She communicates emotion well. We could feel her anger throughout the theatre when Romeo sloped into her bedroom after strangling her cousin. Nobody does rage better than Leebolt. Again nobody does despair better than her. Her entreaties to the friar where masterly. It is a big ask of a mature woman at the height of her career to put herself literally in the shoes of a child - though not impossible for a I saw Fonteyn dance Juliet convincingly when she was well over 50.

Contadini was a perfect fit for Romeo, He was boyish, tender, headstrong, contrite and above all passionate, He partnered Leebolt convincingly.

Solari, Brooks-Daw, Torres, Koon and Bates and indeed the whole cast danced well in their roles. They deserved a lot more than one round of curtain calls.

I shall miss Maillot's Romeo and Juliet now that it is done. If ever there was a ballet that should be taken ti the Wells then it ought to have been this one. I would just love to know what a London audience would make of a Romeo and Juliet without sword fights but with a turbulent priest. As they put up with Pastor's version for Scottish Ballet last year which was in many ways a lot more radical I think they just might buy it

[Jan McNulty]

Q) You are Romeo and find yourself in a production that has apparently forsworn the use of all swords and daggers and reach the final act crypt scene... how do you kill yourself?

 

A) Run across the stage at very high speed and dive onto the pointed end of a wedge shaped grave.

 

Simple really!

 

I was chatting to a chum who had attended the Northern Ballet revealed morning in Leeds.  Apparently the wedge-shaped end of the grave stone is a metaphorical dagger...

 

Very late in the day to add but just to mention that I saw 3 performances in Leeds - two led by Martha and Giuliano and the other led by Dreda and Toby.  Isaac Lee Baker was Friar Lawrence at every performance.  Indeed most of the ladies and gentlemen of the corps performed those roles at every performance throughout the run.

 

This cast had grown even more into their roles since the opening night in Edinburgh and I enjoyed the performances tremendously.  The stage in Leeds is significantly smaller than the one in Edinburgh and the set looked quite claustrophobic.  It also caused a different but equally valid dynamic with the dancing.

 

Toby and Dreda were also outstanding in their interpretations - very different but equally wonderful!  Mlindi Kulashe was wickedness personified as Tybalt - sent shivers down my spine.  Hannah Bateman gave a multi-layered and intelligent performance as Lady C.

 

I am looking forward to seeing NB perform this production again next year.

[aileen]

Yes, NB should bring this to London, perhaps in a couple of years because Les Ballets de Monte Carlo are bringing it to the Coliseum next month.