Frankenstein (May 18th, 2016)

The Royal Ballet's

Frankenstein

May 18th, 2016

I’d been very excited about this ballet since it was announced, and I’m very pleased I finally got to see it. As with any brand new work, there were strengths and weaknesses, and there are definitely a lot of kinks to be worked out. I wasn’t overly fond of some of the casting, so I hope that in the future, Frankenstein will be presented with more than two casts. So I’ll comment on most areas of the ballet, both what I liked and didn’t like. Enjoy!

Seat/Venue Review: I sat C36 in Stalls Circle Left, and it was £35. The view is incredibly restricted and therefore slightly overpriced. But the ROH is always a nice venue and generally pretty comfortable.

(The Guardian)

I really enjoyed Federico Bonelli as Victor Frankenstein. He’s obviously an incredibly solid technician, and his turns are textbook perfection, but he also succeeded in executing the emotional aspects of his character too. Victor was a spritely young man turned into a tortured, slightly mad inventor, and Bonelli found the line between under and overplaying it. I liked how during the ‘lightning’ scene, you could see and feel his desperation as his brilliant idea seemed to be failing, and then his absolute fear and disgust at what he had created. It was sort of the final realization that his mother was absolutely gone, and there was no way to bring her back.

Stephen McRae was excellent as the Creature (and only a dancer of his caliber could pull off that costume). He portrayed the craziness believably; it was an interesting mix of childlike innocence and adult insanity. However, I did feel there were a number of moments where the ‘character’ was left behind in favour of a short ‘dance break’ that didn’t quite fit with the rest of the story.

Laura Morera, who played Elizabeth, was a technically solid dancer, but a rather uninspired actor. The girl playing young Elizabeth was more interesting to watch, and more expressive in body and face than Morera. It was a shame as Elizabeth had potential to be such a beautifully tragic figure, but Morera spent most of the show with a wistful smile on her face, and the rest overacting to the extreme. Her strongest moment acting-wise was in the PDD with the Creature; here you could actually feel some despair and fear (though I wanted to yell, “If you hadn’t stopped for that arabesque you would’ve gotten away!). Just a generally underwhelming performance; I would’ve preferred to see Olivia Cowley or Lauren Cuthbertson dancing that part. They would’ve brought the stellar technique along with intelligent character work. 

Alexander Campbell as Henry was just the most adorable little nugget on the planet. He’s so small, but a powerful dancer and great actor. He did an excellent job establishing his character in his first few moments onstage; Henry was sort of the loveable dork of the show, which Campbell portrayed wonderfully. I was quite bad for him when he was killed by the Creature; no way could this Henry ever shoot anyone. He was too gentle, and Victor knew this (and was a bit of an idiot to leave him alone with a gun).  

Stephen McRae (The Creature)(A. Muir)

I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that I can apparently identify my favourite dancer by one of her arms. I had a mega restricted view and wasn’t really paying attention to the side of the stage I couldn’t see, but I saw an arm wave off to one side and thought, “that was so elegant – must be Olivia.” I was right. As usual, Olivia Cowley exudes elegance and finesse. Gorgeous legs and feet (such lines!), and effortless flexibility. You can’t take your eyes off of her when she’s dancing; in the scene in the anatomy classroom she just exudes this dark, almost contemporary feel. I don’t know how she does it, but she captures and intensifies the mood of whatever scene she’s in. It’s wonderful (and I need to learn how to do that).

The choreography itself was ok. Liam Scarlett’s work has never been entirely to my taste, but this was probably my favourite of his pieces. I don’t like the constant repetition of the same turns and lifts; it gets monotonous quickly. As mentioned above, there were moments where it very much seemed “let me stop the action for a moment and arabesque/pirouette/jump,” which I find incredibly frustrating. Part of what I love about narrative ballets is their ability to smoothly blend dance and storytelling, and for the most part I didn’t feel Scarlett’s choreography achieved this. One scene I really enjoyed was the anatomy lecture. The choreography was very creative, yet still communicated the story of the scene (i.e. the students ‘sewing up’ the assistants). Wildly different choreography and dance styles (contemporary and classical) blended together to form a thoughtful, easy-to-follow scene. I also thought the opening was particularly poignant, though it was more acting-based than ‘dancey’; I loved watching young Victor and Elizabeth’s relationship grow through the opening sequence, and the kids were adorable.

I also really, really loved the costuming. The sparkly ball costumes at the end are my new favourite thing ever; the colours are perfect, the flow of the skirts are beautiful, and they’re very gothic and dark, yet still ‘pretty’. I also liked little details such as how Henry wore brighter colours than everyone else to make him stick out and the variety and balance of hats in the party scene. Each individual costume was beautifully conceived and created, as is usual with the ROH. The only one I didn’t like was Frankenstein’s mothers, as the dancer playing her seemed to be struggling with the length and weight of it. Another favourite of mine was the off-white costumes of the assistants in the anatomy scene

The Anatomy Lecture (The Guardian)

A final thing that stood out was the set. Certainly no expense was spared in this department; the stage was sumptuously decorated with the utmost grandeur. They were all so thoughtfully designed; they were all accurate and realistic, yet still opened up to the front as was necessary. An example would be the anatomy scene; the anatomy theatre was designed such that it extended outwards, yet it could still be visualized as a round theatre. It’s hard to explain, but it just worked. I also liked the outdoor set with the Frankenstein’s house, and the final ball set with it’s large, imposing, yet simple staircase. It was a nice affect.

The only other thing I didn’t like was the final resolution. There was such a dramatic build up, and I was fully expecting a huge, gruesome conclusion (I knew there would be multiple deaths, so I expected them to be quite bloody). As it were, the Creature simply strangled Henry and Elizabeth for a few moments, then left them lying on the floor. It was very anticlimactic. It would’ve been better if he’d ‘torn’ them apart, or raked fingers through their stomachs, or something. Fake blood is a wonderful thing (though I’m sure it’s appallingly hard to get out of costumes). It was just missing something.

So, all in all, a good ballet. Definitely work to be done, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I look forward to seeing it performed again in a few years time, once it’s had some more time to develop.