Snow White: The Sacrifice, BalletLORENT Review 4*
BalletLORENT tours Snow White: The Sacrifice, a visceral, hard-hitting, strictly for grown-ups treatment of the famous fairy tale
We tend to think of fairy tales as pretty, cosy stories well suited to the imagination and sensitivities of children, their endings invariably happy – inevitable hindrances notwithstanding, beautiful girl gets her prince and they live happily ever after.
In reality, though, these seemingly innocent stories derive from ancestral myths and folk tales that delve into humanity’s frailties and its infinite capacity for self-deception and evil.
Building on this duality, the ever-inventive Newcastle-based company BalletLORENT is touring two dance-theatre treatments of Snow White: one for children and another very much for grown-ups.
I attended the sole London performance of the latter, entitled Snow White: The Sacrifice, at Sadler’s Wells East. It’s a hard-hitting, at times horrifying tale of envy, cruelty and the lengths to which one woman is prepared to go in her futile attempt to preserve her youth with all its flattering privileges.
Snow White is the daughter of Queen, who dotes on the perfect “accessory” to her perfect life; until, as she turns 18, the girl’s beauty supersedes her mother’s. Then all hell breaks loose in an 80-minute rollercoaster of emotions, horror and finally redemption. Sort of.
There are no dwarves in this tale, rather “stunted miners”, who spend their days toiling underground to provide the riches that fuel the sumptuous life of the palace. They are led by the Queen’s trusted Huntsman, who, in an interesting twist, ends up marrying Snow White.
Snow White: The Sacrifice. Photo: Luke Waddington
But… will they live happily ever after?
Snow White: The Sacrifice is a complex production, all its elements skilfully knitted together to tell a gripping tale, that at times had me on the edge of my seat.
The text is by the former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, her poetry-infused prose narrated by Sarah Parish in understated tones that nevertheless get under your skin and stay there.
Murray Gold’s score is cinematic, meant less to be danced to than to enhance atmospheres, from the early easy sensuality of the Queen graphically consorting with the King to make her beautiful daughter to the deeply sinister later sequence where the deranged red-lit Queen (lighting design Malcolm Rippeth) devours a heart she thinks is that of the daughter she ordered murdered.
Phil Eddolls clever set is very versatile: it starts as the Queen’s large duck egg blue and gold vanity table topped by a massive mirror, and easily becomes a forest and the home of the “stunted miners”.
The company, augmented by little children from the local community, vibrates with untamed energy. Director Liv Lorent’s choreography is hard to categorise: it relies on vigorous, perpetual movement and clear characterisation for the main figures which, in an inspired move, include the mirror personified by one dancer (Aisha Naamani).
Snow White: The Sacrifice. Photo: Luke Waddington
Caroline Reece offers all the gradations of the Queen’s path from supreme beauty, through murderous mother to finally semi-naked, thoroughly humiliated figure. Virginia Scudeletti is a young, carefree Snow White, initially unaware of her beauty, but not for long; and John Kendall is a forceful Huntsman, though an unlikely leading man… but then that’s the whole point.
BalletLORENT has been creating highly original work for three decades now. Snow White: The Sacrifice is a compelling addition to a valuable repertoire.
© Teresa Guerreiro
(Banner image credit: Snow White: The Sacrifice. Photo: Luke Waddington)
BalletLORENT’s UK tour of Snow White and Snow White: The Sacrifice continues until 31 May. All info here