If the publicity touts a production as based on Sleeping Beauty, you’d better make sure that it carries through. Unfortunately, although this version presented by the team at We Call it Ballet may indeed technically present that dance form, it does the bare minimum to actually bring the Brothers Grimm fairy tale to life.
It begins promisingly enough with a darkened stage, as three ballerinas in white gowns, with tiny fluorescent lights attached, float into view, one of them carrying a swaddled lit-up form – the baby Aurora, who of course will grow up, become cursed by an evil fairy and fall asleep for 100 years before being awakened by true love’s first kiss.
But this ballet-lite, reduced to only an hour’s duration to make it child-friendly and accessible during school holidays – is disappointing in many ways. Apart from large swathes of white fabric hung across the top of the stage and minimal props, there is no background flourish, which means your eye is purely concentrated on the dancing forms. But even though they perform with proficiency as befitting professional artists, the choreography lacks fire and variety.
In the end, the lack of coherent storytelling becomes frustrating; you’d never guess this was supposed to be Sleeping Beauty if you weren’t informed by the supporting material. There were several young children in the audience; they would have definitely been saddened if they were expecting a Disney-like iteration.
The are no costume changes and, confusingly, the wicked fairy and the saviour prince are played by the same person, with only a red or white cape to distinguish between the two. Moreover, fairy tales exist on that simple dialectic between good and bad, but here there is also no actual drama or tension, except for the lighting, which does a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of trying to create mood. Barely had the Sleeping Beauty character fallen into a drowsy state on the floor than, behold, she’s back up and dancing again a few minutes later. The emotional range is atonal, with no real highs or lows.
The selling point of this show, the point of difference, is that these costumes are lit up, with matching crowns and jellyfish-like tendrils affixed to the dresses, but the novelty of glow-in-the-dark, no matter how beautiful, soon wears off. On the night visited, it also seems as though several of these tiny lights were malfunctioning.
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The only time this production really starts to perk up is towards the end, when there is a little more dramatic flair accompanying Tchaikovsky’s ‘Sleeping Beauty Waltz’, but by then it is too little and too late. The dearth of clear storytelling direction, minimal set dressing and no costume changes make this production a lacklustre affair and even its hour duration feels overly long.
We Call It Ballet: Sleeping Beauty
Capitol Theatre, Melbourne
We Call it Ballet has sold out its short run season. The company will next perform on 28 February 2025.
