Edward Scissorhands

Matthew Bourne’s Edward Scissorhands
Tuesday December 12, 2006, 8pm
Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles

Edward Scissorhands is Matthew Bourne’s most recent show, premiering in London during the Christmas season last year and opening last week in LA at the Ahmanson Theatre. Bourne’s work is probably best described as dance theatre: its not strictly ballet, more modern/contemporary dance with a lot of gestural movement, and the dancing itself is more theatrical Broadway than "concert dance." In his shows, there is never really any dancing for dancing’s sake, rather much of it moves a narrative forward or explores some sort of thematic idea.

In Scissorhands, Bourne takes the well-known Tim Burton film of the same name – strange boy with scissors for hands is mysteriously created and turns up in a suburban American town, its residents take him in and alteranately look at him in horror and cautiously attempt to make friends with im – and turns it into his own theatrical pantomime. A lot of the scenes on stage are unique to Bourne’s version, though many visual cues and the overall story arc do come from the film. Bourne largely succeeds at creating a stage piece that is independent of the film source material - you get yourself a full story just by watching what's on stage. I’d seen the film so long ago that I barely remembered a lot of it, and still I was able to follow the story and get all the emotional punches all the same.

Still though, Scissorhands is a lot less ‘dancey’ than much of Bourne’s previous work. There’s dancing in spurts, to be sure, but much of the piece is just a bunch of gesturing or movement. It’s not like Swan Lake or The Car Man, where there is a lot of heavy dancing and where dancing forms the principle dramatic thrust (ahem) of the narrative. This lack of dance makes the proceedings in Scissorhands a little less exciting viscerally, but it also has the effect of turning the focus onto character movement instead.

Bourne is fantastic at creating characters instantly with the way a dancer walks or uses his/her limbs. The opening montage that introduces the characters in the town is brilliant in the way we meet all the wacky, very individual townspeople in only five minutes: the homey Mrs. Bogg who takes Edward in through the kindness of her heart comes out of her doorway with a smile and a big froofy dress; the - um - slutty next door neighbor comes out wearing hot pants and seductively swivels her hips – then a rowdy boy from the town bounds across the stage with a stereo sitting on his shoulder, while a nerdier, gayer one swishes out of another door.

And of course there is Edward, in a metallic suit and his enormous scissors for hands. I saw Sam Archer at the Tuesday first preview performance, and he perfectly embodied Edward’s fragile, curious and sensitive nature. His desire to fit in despite his awkward appearance is made heartbreaking by his earnestness.

The physical production provides a huge visual spectacle for the audience, with its vivid colors and large set pieces. (The show started 40 minutes late on Tuesday due to the complexity of moving the show from city to city; Matthew Bourne appeared on stage to apologize to the audience, explaining that it was the US tour’s first jump from city to city – they had played a matinee on Sunday in San Francisco and manically worked to transfer the production to LA.)

Scissorhands was very... well... Broadway and a little too audience friendly. And even though one can always appreciate Bourne’s ability to tell a coherent story without words, that extra bit of magic that Bourne usually provides just wasn’t there for this one.

I liked the show, I really did – but it wasn’t as exciting as Bourne’s previous work. The whole thing was just so straightforward – a very literal conveyance of the story, whereas Cinderella or Play Without Words had an inventive twist that made you more excited about the work. In Cinderella, this came through resetting the well-known Cinderella tale to the London Blitz, using the standard music from the classical ballet and revealing all sorts of fascinating dark corners inside the score and the tale. In Play Without Words, Bourne used a story and plot from an existing film, but then placed some of the action in triplicate: three couples dressed alike and played out different parts of a scene – beginning, middle, end – all at once in different parts of the stage. It would only work in a theatre, and it was completely fascinating.

My relationship with Matthew Bourne shows goes back to when I first started going to theater: it was his Cinderella that was my first all-dance show, and it started the ball rolling down the hill in my dance interest. Seeing that production also strongly influenced how I came to watch dance later – Cinderella was strongly danced as well as strongly acted by its performers, and the acting was very much a naturalistic acting style. Because of that, I expect strong acting and theatricality in my ballet – and its why I love the Royal Ballet and am becoming largely apathetic towards the Russians. (Bourne is British, has professed a strong connection to watching the Royal Ballet, and has also often used Royal Ballet dancers in his shows).

So perhaps I expected a little more out of Scissorhands. It’s a big, beautiful spectacle and I enjoyed myself quite a bit, but I missed a lot that Bourne usually provides in the dance department.


Photos by Bill Cooper. Above: Sam Archer and Kerry Biggins.

L-R: Sam Archer and Kerry Biggins in the snow sculpture scene; The ensemble of the town in the opening montage; Richard Wisnor, the alternate cast Edward, in the christmas party scene.

Edward Scissorhands continues at the Ahmanson Theatre through December 31. www.CenterTheatreGroup.org