Birmingham audiences are set to be dazzled by a bewitching marriage of filmmaker Tim Burton’s fantastical imagination and the invention, spectacle and character of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures company as their critically-acclaimed dance production of Edward Scissorhands returns to the Birmingham Hippodrome this month for a captivating, one-week-only tenure.

Last seen in Birmingham in 2008, and based on Tim Burton’s Academy Award-nominated 1990 fantasy classic, New Adventures’ magical production has carved a place in the hearts of thousands across the world since its premiere in 2005. After sell out performances in Europe, America, Asia and Australia, this spectacular modern fairy tale returns to the UK in its first major revival, once more making the Birmingham Hippodrome theatre its West Midlands venue of choice.

And it’s a return to the production for Leeds-born dancer, Dominic North, whom I chatted to about the show that won him a National Dance Award nomination as Best Male Dancer in 2009.

“It’s amazing to be going back to it,” North explained, chatting to us after a matinee performance of Scissorhands at Woking’s New Victoria Theatre in January. “I’ve gone back to a few shows with Matthew Bourne, and he makes sure it’s never the same show - I came for my first day of rehearsals and he told me there were three new bits of music and a whole new scene!

It’s still the same story, and if you’ve seen the show before you’ll recognise it, but Matthew just tweaks it for the better.

He takes the established, and it’s usually a good story or character, and he can see and work around that, whether it’s a ballet or book or a film.

For instance, he’s taken scenes from the film that instead of them being a 30 second sequence, like the topiary, ice sculpture or barbecue scenes - he’s extended them into a massive 5 or 6 minute dance number. 

He has that vision, to take something and go on to create around it.”

It’s certainly the voice of experience from North, who has appeared in more of dance director Bourne’s work than any other leading actor, an ongoing professional relationship he finds equally humbling and rewarding.

“It’s only when you write it down, when I have to do a biog for a programme, or something like that, that you realise you’ve done most of his shows. I still can’t believe it’s been 10 years!”

I’m very lucky to have carried on through with it all, and that Matt has trusted me with his shows; nurtured me and directed me.”

Bourne’s programme of taking mostly existing pieces of ballet, theatre, literature, and now film, and putting them through his own creative spectrum has led to his New Adventures company becoming one of the most exciting and successful dance bodies currently active in the UK. Last year, we gave his bold, viscerally striking realisation of Lord of the Flies a glowing five star review as part of the International Dance Festival Birmingham 2014, and for North he believes it is his directors accessibility, and his ability to articulate narrative and character through dance that has led to the company’s success.

“I think his work is so popular because you can understand what’s going on!

I’m a great lover of all dance - pure dance is lovely to look at and I’m a big fan of that - but even me knowing ballet, for instance, I can be sat watching halfway through wondering what’s going on! I think that can put people off, whereas with Matthew it is narrative work - the storytelling is the whole point of it, and the company use whatever dance it is to get that story across. That’s why we have no synopsis in the programme. 

If you haven’t understood what is happening then we haven’t done our jobs!”

It’s a confident and accurate appraisal of Bourne’s on-going legacy of bringing dance of all forms into the mainstream, with a slew of sold-out shows bringing a whole new audience to the kind of dance work they previously would have shied away from. 

“It’s always nice when you meet people at the stage door who say they usually have to get dragged to the ballet!”, North joked, “and it’s some big guy with his two younger daughter dressed in tutus, and he is there telling you he laughed or cried at The Nutcracker!”

It’s typical Matthew Bourne.”

Of the show itself, and taking on it’s unusual yet distinctive central character, Johnny Depp’s now-iconic performance in the title role served as a key point of reference for North when he first came to star in the production, but he explained that going even further back to exploring the inspiration and research that Depp himself undertook for the movie proved invaluable in realising his own interpretation of the character.

“When you research other roles, sometimes there’s different interpretations of a story or character, but here there was just the one. So I studied the film and Johnny Depp at first, but then I was shown what he had used as his research for Edward. 

So then I researched silent films with stars like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Jacques Tati, and I just studied them. Edward very much has that old silent movie quality.

Even in the film he only says something like 160 words, he’s basically a silent character.”

Marrying the physicality of Depp and his muses Chaplin, Tati and Keaton with the vision of Matthew Bourne and the medium of dance was, understandably, a somewhat challenging path for North, particularly considering his elaborate costume and the small matter of the unwieldy scissorhands he is required to don for the part. Going back to it all again after years away proved similarly challenging.

“When I put the suit and hands on for the first time in years, they were heavy. I remember wondering if it was because I was older and if I could get through it! And to then incorporate that with his physicality - it’s quite awkward and different to what you are trained as a dancer to do at the beginning.

It’s quite static and robotic, when he’s just been created. It’s kind of Frankenstein-esque.”

Thankfully, North eased back into the role quickly and confidently, and continues to put on a captivating performance as Edward, one that Birmingham audiences will be able to experience and enjoy for themselves later this month. But for all of his efforts, experience and undeniable ability in the lead role, North believes it is the timeless appeal of the character and story itself that will really continue to resonate with audiences.

“I think it’s a very modern fairytale. You obviously have your classical tales like Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty, but they’ve been around for years. This is quite a new one, and it’s quite rare to get that new fairytale with a central character you can relate to.

Obviously nobody knows exactly how he’s feeling with the scissors, but everyone can relate to him, everyone has had that feeling of being a bit of an outsider, or of just wanting to feel loved or to love somebody.

And on top of that you’ve got the ‘sizzling Matthew Bourne and Tim Burton chemistry’… show-stopping numbers, dancing, comedy value, emotion… it’s 2 hours of escapism, and one of those shows you will come out of having had a good time, and not wander off in your head halfway through thinking about what you’re going to have for dinner.” 

It’s a suitably human and personable summary from the dancer, and it’s difficult to disagree with his findings. Quite beguiling in execution and another masterful revival from the ever-diverting Bourne, Edward Scissorhands will be casting its unique spell on the Hippodrome from February 10 - 14 - a suitably enchanting and romantic recommendation for the Valentine’s period. North will be sharing dance duty for Edward with former Billy Elliot star Liam Mower, and we will be bringing a full review of the show when it runs next week.

 

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS will run at the Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre from Tuesday 10 - Saturday 14 February 2015.

For more information on the show's run at the Hippodrome and to book your tickets, CLICK HERE.

Alternatively, call Ticket Sales direct on 0844 338 5000 now!

 

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