Exeunt, Ursus

On Thursday, I went to The National Ballet's newest production, an adaptation of The Winter's Tale by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. It would have been an evening of all Eastern European ballerinas with Jurgita Dronina (Hermione), Svetlana Lunkina (Paulina), and Elena Lobsanova (Perdita). However, the latter's partner was injured and so the pair of Perdita and Florizel was danced by Rui Huang and Skylar Campbell.

The bulk of this Shakespearean tale of jealousy really rested on the shoulder of Evan McKie as King Leontes. In order to portrayed his descent into rage and suspicion regarding the alleged infidelity of Hermione, Wheeldon combined classical ballet, angular modern movements, and plenty of pantomine. This was the case for most of the characters: joy and happiness translated to jumps and spins, while anger and despair manifested as twitchy arms and fingers.

Like his production of Alice in Wonderland, Wheeldon also love stage spectacle and complex group choreography. Although the sets were fairly abstract: columns, staircases, and marble statues, the sea scenes especially the wild storms were vividly portrayed both virtually as CGI projections onto sheets  and curtains but also physically with these same screens billowing, gusting, and transforming into sails and waves.

I thought the non-stop choreography in the second act where every permutation of sheperds and sheperdesses, Florizel, Perdita, and Father Sheperd and son was just too much. There was no time to feel or think. The third act was abbreviated and weak, but that's from the source material.

The dancing was superb throughout, but there really was only 1.5 acts of interesting narrative. And did Antigonus run off-stage, pursued by that famous bear? Yes, in the form of a towering white wave.