REVIEW | Rapunzel, balletLORENT
Written by Sam
*Disclaimer: Gifted tickets in return for an honest review
balletLORENT is celebrating its 30th anniversary by presenting the fairytale classic, Rapunzel written by Carol Ann Duffy.
In this production, we see how Rapunzel’s parents struggled with life by giving into temptation through greed and privilege. When the Husband, played by Toby Fitzgibbons enters the Witches’ garden to steal rampion for his darling Wife, played by Virginia Scudeletti, he is soon greeted by the Witch (Caroline Reece) who offers the husband a deal. He agrees to give his newborn daughter to the Witch for the rampion. From here, the pain unfolds.
As Rapunzel leaves with the Witch, we see the agonising pain the parents are experiencing through dance. There are minimal props in this show, but it’s quite clear how they are both feeling because their body language portrays unimaginable pain. The Wife spends a lot of time clinging onto her Husband and the bedding and looking out of the windows – she’s scrunched up in some parts to make us aware she’s crying and emotionally exhausted. Even without audio narration, we understand what’s happening and I feel it’s a lot more effective watching it through dance rather than someone yelling about their pain on stage.
The Witch becomes possessive of Rapunzel (Natalie MacGillivary) and decides to lock her away in a tower. Rapunzel’s long life in said tower has given her red hair the chance to grow like you’ve never seen before and her voice the power it needs to finally be heard by the outside world. Whilst the Prince (Gavin Coward) is travelling through the forest, he hears a woman singing so elegantly. Rapunzel throws down her red hair to help the Prince climb the tower and it’s love at first sight.
I really enjoyed the simple yet beautifully built set. This has been designed by Phil Eddolls and it’s an extremely clever design as it’s versatile, but it is aesthetically pleasing to look at because of the integrated flowers. The set is made up of several tall cage-like rails which are used as a bed/window at the back of the house and the remaining pieces eventually create the enclosed tower.
I do feel the use of the tower was excellent. It looked like such a small space to move around but all three characters (Rapunzel, Witch, and the Prince) made use of it through dance. There are elements of acrobatics in there which I loved! I was nervous they might fall, especially when they were climbing but this keeps the suspense going and I couldn’t take my eyes off them.
Although the Witch is an intimidating and scary character, the way Caroline portrays her makes her look like she’s gliding across the floor, almost in an angelic way and all she wants is someone to love in this world. Loneliness and the need to want a child of her own has caused her to be the villain of the story. Caroline’s costume also gave her character more depth. The hooped skirt is a major part of the show because it’s often used to capture Rapunzel, which shows her possessive side and also highlights how powerful she actually is.
This is my first time seeing a performance by dance theatre company, balletLORENT and I loved that they took traditional ballet and adopted a modern take. What made this performance stand out for me was the use of audio – both the music (Murray Gold) and the narration (Lesley Sharp) helped create tension and made the story much easier to follow.
Personally, I don’t think this show is suitable for ages five and over. Certain scenes portray quite erotic moments (sexual intercourse) and it is also quite violent at times (the Witch uses whips on stage). Both themes were executed well, but I think it is inappropriate to have such young children in the audience when the choreography felt a little more explicit than it should have been.
This story is filled with a large cast of dancers and children from local primary school, Becket Primary School, and it creates a captivating experience that has your eyes darting from left to right, so you take it all in.
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
