Play Without Words
Theatre Royal, Plymouth
Tues 18th- Sat 22nd May 2004

Revolving Roles of Master and Servant...

Play Without Words may not have the same ring to it as Swan Lake or Nutcracker! but it’s certainly appropriate.

Matthew Bourne has previously reworked classical ballets and opera, but never denied that movies fuelled his imagination.

And so, eventually, he’s produced a full length dance based on a film from the early 1960s called The Servant.

Matthew Bourne

Although always described as a brilliant choreographer, Bourne’s real genius lies in blurring the divide between ballet and physical theatre.

He puts on a damn good show and you can always rely on being visually stimulated as well as impressed by the performance.

He’s a master collaborator and set design, and costumes have always been key to his previous successes.

The revolving set and elegant costumes by Lez Brotherson really make this piece.

Against a sixties backdrop with a teetering GPO Tower, Centrpoint and Big Ben, we have splashes of colour in a bright red double decker bus and phone box. The street sign tells us we are in "swinging" Chelsea.

But it is the pivoting double staircase that is the core of the sometimes frenetic action by the dancers.

They rise and fall, appear and disappear, writhe and caress using the banisters as supports.

With two flapping doors, it becomes a basement flat entrance, a hallway with phone, a crowded tube, a shower, and is our doorway to the bizarre relationship between master and servant and the women they are seduced by.

Enigmatic Variations

All the variations are hard to absorb at first

In a movie one actor plays the part, but Bourne has three dancers each as Anthony, Glenda, Prentice and Speight. Two women perform as Sheila the seductive maid.

His explanation is: "If you have one person on stage doing everyday movements it's not going to look choreographed.

"But if you have two people doing the same move at the same time and then again with a slight variation, it’s choreography."

This doesn’t mean that the dancers are synchronised. There are differences in all the moves, repetitions with nuances and alterations but depicting the same moment.

At first it seems hard for the eye to absorb it all, but you very soon adapt and relish the variations. It also means that Bourne is not limited to just one ending!

Bourne has a brilliant knack for injecting humour into his work and here the fun comes when a dancer appears in just his little white Y fronts.

He stands like a dummy as his servant intimately applies deodorant and dresses him. Simultaneously another Anthony is being undressed and with a final flourish the servant whips down his masters undies.

It's a sexy show!

It’s funny and very cleverly choreographed showing the intimacy of the master-servant relationship and ultimately hints at the disdain the servant feels.

Sex bubbles and erupts in act two. Glamorous Glenda gets her bit of rough with Speight, the angry young man character. Seedy sex as revenge.

But naughty maid Sheila really gets steamy with her boss on the kitchen table (echoes of The Postman Always Rings Twice). It’s a deliciously slow and seductive scene with beautiful movement.

It's also hugely voyeuristic as the alternative Sheila watches from the stairs and joins in.

Every aspect of this work is brilliant and I must praise the specially composed jazz score by Terry Davies which blew me away with its echoes of Miles Davies.

I would beg you to go this show. Don’t think of it as ballet ‘cos it isn’t, but it is wonderful theatre and a great fun night out. Inspired and definitely different!

*In his after show talk Mathew Bourne revealed that his next major work could premiere in Plymouth! He is working on his version of gothic horror "Edward Scissorhands," originally a Tim Burton film starring Johnny Depp and Wynona Ryder...watch this space for any news.

Play Without Words
Theatre Royal, Plymouth
Tues 18th- Sat 22nd May 2004, 7.30pm
Matinees Thurs 20th & Sat 22nd, 2.30pm
Tickets: £6 - £22.50
Box Office: 01752 267222