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Last night was a very memorable night at the Theatre. The Birmingham Royal Ballet, had performed a, 'Triple Bill', and they performed three very different and wonderful shows.
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The first show was, 'Checkmate'.
"A Dramatic War of Lust Betrayal"
The curtains rose to reveal only the front section of the stage, and sitting in front of a beautiful 1930s style back drop, were two players at a chess board. Their arms moved slowly and gracefully around the chessboard as their legs stayed in statue, in a very heroic, powerful position. The curtains dropped, and rose again to reveal the huge stage, and the floor was a huge chess board.
The stage then lit up with red hues and 8 pawn pieces danced onto the stage. Their costumes were beautifully designed with an iconic 1930s look, the colours involved golds, reds and oranges, so it gave a very warm feeling. As other red pieces danced and glided over the stage. The warm colours of their costumes really reflected on the personality of this side of the chessboard, as each piece looked out for one another in their dance, against their opponents.
The other side of the board were ballet dancers dressed in black and silver costumes (The queen is previewed above in the poster). The lighting for them as they danced were light blues and silvers, so gave a very cold feeling, which was perfect as this side were devious and shared no mercy to the red side.
Each dance was a representation of the moves in the game of chess the two players at the beginning were performing. As they went through and performed each chess move, we quickly realise the darker side are very powerful and are winning.
The performance ended with a very dramatic but beautiful, 'Checkmate' scene, where the stage was lit darkly and all of a sudden a strong white light is shone from the level of the stage up onto the ballet dancers, the dark side are holding sticks and trapping the king in a 'cage', and because of the flood light, it created a huge shadow of the king, the cage and the opponents onto the large backdrop. Then suddenly the large orchestra (set under the stage) built up the tension for the queen as she enters gracefully but dramatically. She then kills the king and it is a huge beautiful, symbolic end.
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25 minute interview
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The second show was, 'Symphonic Variations'
"A Timeless Masterpiece"
This short ballet production was absolutely stunning. It really was a privilege to see a piece written by a master choreographer, which is well known for being, "...one of the greatest masterpieces of English ballet."
Six dancers were dressed in golds and pearly whites, the three women had pearly white ball headdresses and floaty short dresses. The men had similar headdresses but they were more masculine, and complimented their white leggings and smart white and gold tops.
The show was amazing.
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25 minute interview
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The final show was, 'Pineapple Pole'
This was a comedy ballet, it was about a captain and all the women fall in love with him and fight over him to get his attention. He has all his attention on one woman, the woman he is engaged to. The set was fun, it was done in a cartoony style, we had a town and the view on a ship. It wasn't to my taste, it didn't compare to the sophistication of the,'Checkmate' set.
The Triple Bill was an amazing experience as they were three very different shows from The Birmingham Royal Ballet, to analyse and enjoy. Checkmate was personally my favourite, it was so beautifully written, the costumes worked perfectly with the set and it gripped me from start to finish.
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