Male-only version of Swan Lake to be performed at Regent Theatre, Hanley

Jan 13 2010 by Will Harris, Crewe Chronicle

It can be a struggle getting men or young people into theatres to watch a ballet.

But pioneering choreographer and director Matthew Bourne is bucking the trend.

He brings his gritty male-only masterpiece Swan Lake to the Regent Theatre, Hanley, next month, on the back of scooping more than 30 international theatre awards for the production.

Since transforming Tchaikovsky’s score, Bourne has proffered his Midas touch to other productions such as Carmen, but audiences in North Staffordshire and South Cheshire are in for a treat with the original – and arguably best.

Bourne said: “We get lots of requests for various pieces all the time actually, but it is one of the most popular pieces. It’s a piece that a lot of people tell me they saw or were persuaded to see a couple of years back and it made them find a new interest in dance.

“There are a lot of young people who saw the show when they were at school and it then inspired them to go on to dance, particularly young guys, and now they’re dancers. Swan Lake was their original inspiration.

“There are several people like that in the company at the moment, it was the first thing they saw that made them want to be a dancer.”

To move to provide a full corps of male dancers for a predominantly female show was certainly bold and initially had its detractors.

But Bourne has proved his doubters wrong and now believes dancers fully accept both a male and a female version of the show.

“I suppose it has become quite iconic,” he said. “I was thinking the other day, they’re quite young a lot of the company, the new swans who have come in, they’re 17, 18, 19.

“They were toddlers when we first did it, or very young kids, so they’ve grown up with it as a piece that has always been there.ŠFor them, with Swan Lake, there are two versions; the female swan version and the male swan version and they have grown up with that.

“It’s odd to think that, when we first did it, it was kind of unthinkable and no-one could imagine whether it could possibly work. And now there’s this generation of kids who just accept it as a classic in its own right.”

But it very nearly didn’t come to fruition.

Bourne said: “Initially, we may not have even got it off the ground. We had a lot of trouble raising money for it. I remember having one meeting with one person who might have give us some money and they very much frowned on it, they didn’t think it would work and didn’t want to put money into it.

“But I suppose a part of me did think it would work, you have to have a bullish feeling for something you think will work even though the people around you think it’s a stupid idea. When we were making the piece all of us in the rehearsal room quietly believed in it.”

Swan Lake is at the Regent Theatre from Monday to Saturday, February 15-20. Shows start at 8pm, with 2.30pm matinees on the Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets are priced £14-£32. To book, phone the box office on 0844 871 7627 or visit www.ambassadortickets.com/Regent-Theatre.