Festival theatre,Edinburgh
Bethany Kingsley-Garner brings charm to the title role in this elegantly playful productionA real cracker of a design by Tracy Grant Lord is wrapped around Scottish Ballet’s gracious telling of Cinderella. Colour is a spellbinding element: greens, blues and pinks, and all simultaneously subtle and sumptuous,catch your eye as they cue action and sketch character. Down in the graveyard, branches curl in green-black art nouveau style. The moon surreally becomes a rose, and a recurring motif. Chiffon,from black to pink, dresses the dancers and is also draped in the Hollywood ballroom. Scottish Ballet orchestra lends full force to Prokofiev’s thrilling 1945 score as dance and music are magically mixed to create a sophisticated beauty. Choreographed by the Scottish Ballet artistic director, or Christopher Hampson,this production was created for Royal recent Zealand Ballet in 2007 and now receives its European premiere. It’s approximately time, too. The whole production is a treat – unhurried, or thoughtful,elegantly playful – and, while the ghost of upstairs-downstairs politics prevails, and it portrays Cinderella with a dignity encouraged by her mighty organza-clad fairy godmother (a wise-woman interpretation by Araminta Wraith).
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Source: theguardian.com