SCOTTISH BALLET
Labour of
LOV E
Kelly Apter goes behind the scenes at Scottish Ballet and talks to the people charged with bringing a contemporary vision of Romeo and Juliet to vibrant life
hen the curtain falls on Scottish Ballet’s new production. it won‘t just be the performers who deserve a round of applause. Sitting in the audience, it’s easy to forget the months of planning. preparation and perspiration that go into staging a large-scale show. The journey to bring this modern take on Romeo and Juliet to fruition
20 THE us'r 8—22 May 2008
started with an Italian holiday. A holiday where. under a Tuscan sky. choreographer Krzysztof Pastor. designer Tatyana van Walsum and dramaturg Willem Bruls turned Shakespeare‘s 16th century teenage tragedy into a statement on 20th and 21st century life.
Krzysztof Pastor CHOREOGRAPHER Prior to the 2006 Edinburgh International Festival. few. if any. UK dance fans had heard of Krzysztof Pastor. That all changed when Scottish Ballet performed his stunning abstract work. In Light and Shadow. Ever since. the company has been waiting for the Polish choreographer to return to Glasgow and work some more magic. When he eventually did. there was only one ballet he wanted to create: Romeo and Juliet. But why‘.’ ‘As a story it has everything] explains Pastor.
‘You can set it in the Renaissance. now or in the future. because this conflict and this impossible love has always been here. and always will be.‘ As a result. Pastor and his creative team have taken the play's ‘timeless‘ quality and gone to town with it. The action now takes place in the 1930s. l95()s and present day. often at the same time. Confused? You may not be.
‘People always say that the story of Romeo and Juliet can happen anytime. And it‘s also very much about the conflict of the parents. and probably their parents before them. So it keeps going over different generations. that‘s why we wanted to move in time.’
It‘s not just the timeline that Pastor has played around with as two of Shakespeare‘s characters. the Nurse and Paris. have also ended tip on the cutting room floor. ‘Shakespeare wrote the play when there were different rules for drama.‘ says Pastor. ‘And the Nurse was a "comical relief“. Do I need a comical relief in my ballet‘.’ I don’t think so. Instead. Juliet has a group of friends. which is much closer to our reality today.‘
As for the score. Prokofiev has been well and truly Pastorised. ‘I want the ballet to move fast. Not to have one market scene after another just for decoration. Prokofiev wrote it that way. but I don‘t think it’s necessary: there's enough dancing in it without using the fill] score.‘
Gone too are the swashbuckling scenes where the (‘apulet and Montague men cross swords. Instead. there‘s something far more real and identifiable going on. It’s Romeo and Juliet. btit not as we know it. ‘It’s not a ballet with swords and it‘s not a fairytale. It‘s really a pacifist ballet. We want people to look for associations with the modern times.’