Sleeping Beauty

A winter's night in Edinburgh. The full moon shines down from an open, frosty sky. Work deadlines are overwhelming. What better way to spend the evening than indulging in a little Gothic Romance at the Festival Theatre with Matthew Bourne? I admit I don't think I really get ballet. I do love watching talented people do things well, and I like the music, but otherwise to me it's really just a bunch of people flinging themselves round a stage. But I was truly entranced by the costumes,the set, the whole gorgeous design of Sleeping Beauty. It draws you into another world, time travelling through Victorian melodrama and Edwardian garden parties and glitzy modern nightclubs; a world of poisoned roses and dark forests and abandoned castles; vampire fairies and beautiful, nasty it-girls and boys; puppets and puppet masters; waxed chests and fairy wings. OK, it really isn't a feminist story. Aurora is the original victim, pushed from bad witch-godmother to strict Mummy and overbearing Daddy to evil witch's son-vampire to gangly husband to motherhood with only the teeniest bit of freedom and dancing along the way. But that aside, it was a wonderful evening. A little bit of pre-Christmas magic.