A contemporary "Verona Correctional Institution" appeared on the stage, with iron cages for confinement, white brick walls, and staff who looked like nurses walking back and forth. Young men and women dressed in uniform white clothes jumped onto the stage. They were full of energy, but they were also restrained. Romeo and Juliet's love began in such an environment. Unlike people's imagination of Shakespeare's "Roju", there is no longer a feud between the Montagues and the Capulets, but only a confrontation between the young people in the correctional center and the authoritative rules. Contemporary and avant-garde textures belong not only to the stage design but also to the production.
"Romeo and Juliet" stills
"This play is a particularly young version of "Romeo and Juliet", whether it is the story, the background in which it takes place, or the way it is told, including all the actors in our crew. It is for this A work for contemporary audiences,” said the theater’s resident director Alan Vincent before the performance.
Matthew Bourne
Since the male version of " Swan Lake " came to Shanghai Cultural Square for the first time in 2014, Matthew Bourne has come to Shanghai many times in the past 10 years, and his works and style have become increasingly popular among Shanghai audiences. familiar. And this time, "Romeo and Juliet" is as "extraordinary" as ever.
As the only artist in the world who has won the Tony Award for "Best Choreography" and "Best Director" at the same time, Matthew Bourne is the most popular and successful choreographer and director in the UK and even the world. New Adventures Dance Company is also one of the UK's top and pioneering dance companies. The creation, adaptation and subversion of he and his team have provided the audience with more possibilities to interpret classics, and also given new vitality to the art of ballet.
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In the field of stage art, there have been too many versions of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet", and Matthew Bourne's version is subversive. The plot is set at a certain time in the future, and the scene is set in a "correctional academy" full of constraints and rules. It explores the emotions and relationships of contemporary young people. The only constant is the love of Romeo and Juliet that breaks through everything. , and finally had to face the tragic ending of fate.
Matthew also said that this is the "Romeo and Juliet" that best suits the aesthetics of today's young people: "It is completely different from previous works. "Romeo and Juliet" is full of passion. It tells the story of today's young people and can connect with young people." To create empathy. "In his opinion, the audience can walk into the theater, feel the story, sit back and enjoy it without any preparation in advance.
Still photos of "Romeo and Juliet"
In 2019, this version of "Romeo and Juliet" was widely praised after its premiere in the UK. The New Adventures Dance Company won many important awards, including the Laurence Olivier Award, the Tony Award and the British National Dance prize. In April this year, this work started an international tour. After completing performances in Japan and South Korea, it officially started its China tour from Shanghai in June and will continue to Beijing and Guangzhou.
As a new work that combines modern dance and classical ballet, the music of the whole play plays a vital role. The classic score composed by the former Soviet composer Sergei Prokofiev for the classic ballet "Romeo and Juliet" runs throughout the entire play. This work, which is full of contemporary and avant-garde temperament, is also full of passion, romance and sadness.
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Matthew Bourne also bluntly said that compared to Shakespeare's text, Prokofiev's music is more like a script to his creation: "This is really a beautiful ballet, Many times it is like the soundtrack of a modern movie. I had to completely abandon the inherent thinking of the original ballet, listen carefully to the music and use it as a script, and find new elements and breakthrough interpretations. "
As for the one in the play. The stage design and scenery are completely different from any version. Matthew also said that this is the result of discussions between him and his long-term collaborator Lez Brotherston. They imagined a place where young people's minds were imprisoned against their will, like an institution in a school, where young people tried to escape difficulties and constraints.
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In the play, a large number of group dances show the vigorous vitality of young people, while the love between the hero and heroine Romeo and Juliet is full of sweetness, struggle and pain. The various scenes and action designs in the dance drama show the rich emotional changes between the characters. Emotions are also full and changeable. Light, playful, struggling, painful, the two-hour performance is full of changes. But the youthful, contemporary and avant-garde temperament, the delicacy, elegance and restraint that belong to British theater productions, are always there.
"Romeo and Juliet" stills
"This version of "Romeo and Juliet" is very different. This is also an experience I try to provide people, an experience they have never had before. You can always look forward to new adventures The surprise that the company brings, I think that's why audiences always come back, that's why they want to come back and should come back, because it always grabs you and touches you in an unexpected way."
Today, four hundred years after the original script came out, Matthew hopes to attract more audiences into the theater with "Romeo and Juliet as you have never seen it before."
