Fans of choreographer Matthew Bourne are in for a treat this year as the award-winning artist revives some of his early work at the Liverpool Playhouse this spring, ahead of his hit show The Red Shoes playing at the Liverpool Empire Theatre this summer.

Inspired by what it means to be British, Early Adventures is a trio of shorts by Bourne’s company New Adventures, behind timeless works like Swan Lake, The Car Man, Edward Scissorhands and Sleeping Beauty.

The three pieces, Town and Country, The Infernal Gallop and Watch with Mother, take Bourne back to his career roots in the 1980s and the birth of the style, wit and entertainment that have become hallmarks of his company today.

Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures - Watch with Mother

In Town and Country, the audience is encouraged to lie back and think of England as the pastiche explores notions of national character from a bygone era through the evocative music of Edward Elgar, Noël Coward and Percy Grainger.

Described as ‘a French dance with English subtitles’, The Infernal Gallop is France as seen by the uptight English imagination, with all the traditional clichés and a Can-Can climax.

Anyone who can remember Joyce Grenfell’s nursery school sketches and a childhood of playing hopscotch, conkers and doctors and nurses will enjoy Watch with Mother at the same time as being reminded how all-consuming, competitive and sometimes cruel children’s games can be.

Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures

The cast includes New Adventures’ favourites Reece Causton, Tom Clark, Daniel Collins, Sophia Hurdley, Mari Kamata, Jamie McDonald and Edwin Ray as well as Joao Carolino and Paris Fitzpatrick who are making debut with the company.

Early Adventures, directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne with designs by long-time collaborator Liverpudlian Lez Brotherston, is at the Liverpool Playhousex is at the Playhouse from Tuesday, March 28-Saturday April 1. Tickets from here.

Sir Matthew Bourne at the Liverpool Playhouse

Bourne’s ballet The Red Shoes, which played to sell-out audiences at Sadler’s Wells earlier this year, will be at the Empire Theatre in Liverpoool in June and July this year.

Based on the famous Oscar-winning Powell and Pressburger film starring Moira Shearer, the story has inspired generations of dancers with its tale of obsession, possession and one girl’s dream to be the greatest in the world.

The Red Shoes is at The Liverpool Empire from Tuesday, June 27 - Saturday, July 1. To book tickets click here.