Swan Lake 30th Anniversary
Swan Lake
Milton Keynes Theatre (UK Tour)
Review Complete
“Fantastic Performance. Speechless at the end!”
15th April 2025
The genius that is Matthew Bourne was on display last night at Milton Keynes Theatre in the shape of his incomparable version of the ballet Swan Lake! This production celebrates the 30th anniversary and it somehow doesn’t seem nearly that long ago that I first saw it!
Right from the start, where we all thought the image of the swan on the gauze was a painting until it gently flew away, the innovation of scenery, costume, set and choreography were on display to take the audience’s breath away. The five main characters are all double or triple cast and last night we saw James Lovell as The Prince who was outstanding. He was a brilliant dancer and actor.
Jackson Fisch played The Swan/The Stranger. He was such a strong character and his dancing was superb! Nicole Kabera was a beautifully haughty Queen but my favourite character was The Girlfriend played by Bryony Wood. She was so flirty and her sense of comedy was wonderful.
This version of the ballet is well known as the “all male” Swan Lake, which it patently isn’t, but the swan corp de ballet are all men.
Matthew Bourne’s choreography of these swans is a fascinating mix of strength and soft elegance which turns increasingly more intimidating towards the end of the ballet. Needless to say the audience were up on their feet at the end and many curtain calls were taken! It was dark, and yet uplifting.
It looked beautiful and it left me speechless! If I could have given this production 100 stars I would have done just that! It is on until Saturday 19th April so if there are any tickets left, snap them up! It’s an experience not to be missed!
Reviewer: Julia Rufey.
We are Gifted tickets so that in return we may give an honest review. All comments are those of the reviewer and theirs alone.