Cinderella in the Round

Cinderella in the Round at The Royal Albert Hall

“There’s magic in English National Ballet’s new in-the-round staging of Cinderella – just not the kind you might expect. There’s no pumpkin or fairy godmother, no glass slipper of Charles Perrault’s classic fairy tale; the stepsisters (a pair of unforgiving NHS specs aside) aren’t even ugly. Instead Christopher Wheeldon has turned to the Brothers Grimm to create a story full of dark frivolity and fantasy, high on romance yet with a strong original feel.

Wheeldon created his Cinderella as a co-production with Dutch National Ballet and San Francisco Ballet back in 2012; then it won rave reviews as much for its lavish, clever designs as for its coolly neo-classical choreography. Here he’s adapted the show for the arena-like cavern of the Royal Albert Hall, ramping up the ballroom scenes with dozens more dancers and tweaking the ensemble work to provide spectacle from all the sight lines. Many of Julian Crouch’s original fantastical sets – notably the huge tree that springs out of the grave of Cinderella’s mother, made by puppeteer Basil Twist – have been reimagined using elaborate projections beamed on to scrims, curtains and the floor itself. Yet some of the best effects still remain; Act I closes with a carriage seemingly conjured out of thin air, designed using sleight of hand, a wind machine and yards of flowing silk.

Taking on Prokofiev’s rich music, Wheldon creates phrases of quiet beauty amid the showy set pieces. Alina Cojocaru, tiny and ethereal, with feather-light bourrées and the sweetest of smiles, is an ideal Cinderella, Isaac Hernández a charmingly boyish prince. Tamara Rojo is also deliciously good as stepmother Hortensia, a bullish tiger mother at one minute, then vomiting, hungover, into the porridge in another.

If only the ballet’s other comic moments were so deftly handled. Even Frederick Ashton – choreographer of the definitive Cinderella – battled with how to balance out the story’s darker moments with its panto-esque turns, and Wheeldon is no exception. So, we get time-worn jokes about halitosis, fake breasts and smelly feet; most raised only modest chuckles. And why bother to give your heroine agency and a feisty makeover when you’re later going to poke fun at other female characters with gags about nymphomaniacs and one-legged spinsters? Cinderella should fill the heart with child-like wonder, not leave it sinking at the childish humour.” -Emma Byrne