Dance: Feel the heat

New Adventures
The Car Man
director-choreographer Matthew Bourne
with Will Bozier, Ashley Shaw, Harry Ondrak-Wright, Anna-Maria De Freitas, Danny Reubens, Eleanor McGrath, Harrison Dowzell, Karishma Young, Jarrod McWilliams, Tanisha Addicott, Cameron Flynn, Rae Miller, Xavier Andriambolanoro-Sotiya, Serena McCall, Nicholas Shikkis, Jamie Duncan-Campbell, Tim Hodges
music Terry Davies featuring Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite (after Georges Bizet’s Carmen)
conductor Benjamin Pope • sets/costumes Lez Brotherston
lighting Chris Davey • sound Paul Groothuis
Sadler's Wells, London • 28.Jul-29.Aug.26 ★★★★★

This show premiered in 2000 and has been revived several times since, but this is the first time I've seen Matthew Bourne's notoriously sexy spin on Bizet's Carmen. Intriguingly, he largely only adapts the opera's tone, and the intensity of its plot, while spinning a new story that has its roots in American noir cinema. It also, of course, has the intriguing whiff of a queer twist in the tale. The result is thrilling theatre, a dazzling dance that needs no dialog or subtitles to keep us gripped to the feverish story.

It's set in the 1960s in a small Midwestern town called Harmony, as the hunky drifter Luca (Will Bozier) catches everyone's attention on arrival. He takes a job in a mechanic shop owned by Dino (Danny Reubens), whose feisty wife Lana (Ashley Shaw) immediately starts flirting with him. But Luca also has an eye on young Angelo (Henry Ondrak-Wright), who is bullied by the other guys. And Lana's sister Rita (Anna-Maria De Freitas) is also drawn to Angelo.

The soapy plot swirls around how Lana and Angelo are both smitten by Luca, leading to explosions of violence and a miscarriage of justice over the course of nine months. This is revealed through Bourne's expressive choreography, which plays cleverly on emotions that can't be contained. So the movement is exhilarating and sometimes menacing, a pungent tangle of passion, jealousy, innocence, yearning and revenge. 

Members of the large ensemble throw their bodies into the fray, with fully extended movement that often takes the breath away, creating a range of relationships around the edges while the five central figures jostle around each other. So the atmosphere is properly steamy, from the opening after-work shower sequence to a languishing summer evening during which these hot, young people can't be bothered to control their desires. This rowdy camaraderie is thoroughly entertaining, with sparky banter expressed through physicality rather than words.

The complex set helps to create an entire world, from the garage to a diner, nightclub and prison block. Solos and duets are simply gorgeous, evoking layered emotions with achingly cool visual flourishes. Among the show-stopping set pieces, there's a witty, telling pantomime and a very messy drag race. The tone veers expertly from lusty to playful to darkly grisly. And the darker second half charges headlong into a conclusion that's as grim as we expect it to be, creating a cautionary tale about not letting the libido completely control our lives. As if.

For information, SADLER'S WELLS > 

photos by Johan Persson • 31.Jul.26