Bourne Again.

New Adventures/Matthew Bourne National Theatre London, England August 23, 2002

The august National Theatre, on the south bank of the Thames, is renowned for its first-rate theatrical plays and musicals. The cream of British actors--and some American ones, too--have vied for work in plays by such authors as Shakespeare and Stoppard. This summer, a five-month project titled "Transformation" was created in two of the complex's three theaters to present thirteen world premieres, at special low ticket prices to attract new, young audiences.

Surprisingly, one of those works had no spoken words--it was danced throughout and was the latest production by Matthew Bourne, founder of Adventures in Motion Pictures and creator of the exciting Swan Lake that used men instead of women for the swans.

Since AMP's split (see News, page 40), Bourne has formed a new company called New Adventures, and this production was its first work. Play Without Words (subtitled "the housewarming") is 100 minutes of pure dance with a scenario loosely based on the film The Servant. As with his last work, The Car Man, Bourne has again employed his passion for cinema with action that is so razor-sharp and absorbing that verbal language is not missed.

He crams the dance-play with his inimitable innovative style and subtle humor, setting it in Chelsea and the swinging 1960s, where beehive hairdos, Jackie Kennedy pencil skirts, and boxy jackets are the rage. A clever set sums up the neighborhood with Big Ben, a double-decker bus, a red telephone booth, and the neon of sleazy strip joints.

The plot is simple--a power game between the underdog and his master. Here Anthony, a bespectacled, rich, nerdy bachelor, complete with an ambitious, classy girlfriend, advertises for a manservant and hires the immaculately mannered Prentice. While Prentice seems subservient at first, within a month his conniving and sinister nature enables him to change places with his eventually groveling employer.

There are five characters in the "script," but Bourne ingeniously cast and dressed identically three dancers for each main role. Very confusing and perhaps boring, you might think, but no. He gave each dancer his own role to enact, making it seem like three plays on the same subject, going on at the same time, showing different aspects of the story. You just needed to be a three-eyed Gorgon to keep track of all the action.

And there was plenty of that: from the various flirtations in and out of the swinging doors of the "below stairs" to the seduction scene on the kitchen table accompanied only by the sound of a dripping tap. Throughout, the work flowed with Bourne's touches of wit--in one scene, while one manservant dresses his master, another undresses his, all with slick, acrobatic moves that kindergartners would adore.

Another time, Prentice turns on the radio and the Workers' Playtime theme, so familiar to British listeners, set the maids dusting and plumping cushions in an affected dance. At the housewarming party (which includes an Austin Powers lookalike), Anthony plays a painfully embarrassing series of charades, before the party-goers bop with boredom in smoke-ridden gloom.

The excellent score evoking the age is by Terry Davies, while Lez Brotherston is once again responsible for the superb costuming and design. While all of the twelve dancers were excellent, special praise should go to Scott Ambler for his creepy Prentice and his sharp, knife-cutting dancing. Bourne has another big hit on his hands, and though the run ended September 14, its tremendous success has fired hopes that it will be presented at another theater in the near future.