Sleeping Beauty on Ice at Edinburgh Playhouse Review
Sleeping Beauty on Ice
Edinburgh Playhouse
Reviewed by Nicole Warren
The 25 strong cast tell the tale of how the Black Fairy – Carabosse takes umbrage at being omitted from the birthday celebrations and curses Princess Aurora to sleep until wakened by true love’s kiss.
As a ballet fan, Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty has always been something I have seen as classical ballet. How that would translate to ice skating, I wasn’t sure. Ice skating has seen a massive come-back in recent years with help from the TV programme – Dancing on Ice. In fact – one cast member from this year’s Dancing on Ice can be found amongst the Imperial Ice Stars – Olga Sharutenko who partnered Keith Chegwin, has the role of the Lilac Fairy in this production.
There are certainly strengths to having ballet converted to a modern ice skating interpretation – such as the speed at which the dancers travel round the ice stage and the drama that creates. However, ice skating lacks the grace of traditional ballet and moves are often limited and repetitive with the female dancers often being lifted by their partners as they circle the stage for dramatic effect. I did enjoy the unexpected aerial sequences and the use of fire on the ice. This made for very exciting watching.
Much needed humour was injected by Catalabutte and his assistant – Aleksei Vasilev and Svitlana Pylypenko. They were definitely my favourite characters and could often be found at the back of scenes causing hilarity.
I was disappointed with some of the scenery in this production – fake curtains at the front of the stage especially, but the backdrops were beautiful. The costumes used were stunning – crafted by Stanislavsky Theatre.
Overall, the production was lovely and really enjoyable. The story was easy to follow and I feel that people of all ages would enjoy and is certainly a way of making classical music more accessible to the masses.
Rating: 4/5
Sleeping Beauty on Ice is currently on tour around the UK, for more information or to book tickets click here.
