Manchester Theatre News & Reviews

REVIEW - Matthew Bourne's The Car Man is a gripping, rippling, slice of genius!

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We were invited to Lowry in Salford to see The Car Man. Read what our reviewer Karen Ryder had to say about this amazing Matthew Bourne production...

We are lucky enough to once again be graced at Lowry’s stunning Lyric theatre by the incredible presence of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures company with their latest touring production – The Car Man. Another New Adventures award-winning show, it hypnotically mixes dance, theatre, and storytelling with a vibrant cinematic vibe, bringing us a fiery thriller full of passion, love, greed and betrayal. Following its world premiere in May 2000 it has gone on to be an award-winning show that has toured both the UK and the world to critical acclaim. Its popularity was such that it was then filmed and screened at cinemas worldwide, sold on DVD, and made available on Sky Arts! Swan Lake may have been one of the most recognisable dances that Matthew Bourne worked his magic on, but The Car Man has one of the most instantly recognisable scores, weaving its magic around its source material of Bizet’s most popular opera, Carmen. This fierce, fast, and fever fuelled production continues to thrill audiences wherever it goes, captivating us with its tempestuous, seductive stranger, who ignites the fuel and burns everything he touches.

The Car Man is of course loosely based on Bizet’s famous opera Carmen and the James M Cain novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice, but has been given that unique, modern, and exquisitely creative glow up by Matthew Bourne that we have all come to anticipate. Bizet’s 19^th Century cigarette factory in Spain has been switched for the iconic and much loved 1960’s America era, centred around a typical diner and garage in the small town community of Harmony. With a close knit bunch of locals and little opportunity for anything beyond their current existence, tensions are always simmering away just beneath the surface, dangerously close to eruption. So when Luca arrives in town and doesn’t play within the careful web of rules, it’s only a matter of time before the tempers, desires, dreams and demands of the resident’s encapsulated lives are tested beyond their limits. Everyone in Harmony wants something more than what life can currently offer them, and Luca has come along as the match to light the explosion. Luca teases, toys, and tempts both the men and women living in Harmony, starting simultaneous torrid liaisons with multiple people, playing on their vulnerabilities. As jealousies unfurl and tensions rise, plans become more erratic and desperate, and Harmony is thrown into a spiralling chain reaction of ever plummeting decisions, events, and outcomes. Murder seems inevitable. The Car Man is an impassioned warning of how toxic desire can spread faster than petrol on a flame. But make no mistake, both burn like hell.

Will Bozier (MB Swan Lake, MB The Red Shoes, Moulin Rouge, Wicked) is our intoxicating Car Man Luca and arrives with a self-assured confidence that is immediately hypnotic. He takes what he wants when he wants, whether that be a seat at the table, someones beer, or someones wife, and he gets away with it because no one really challenges his composed authority. Bozier creates a presence that is powerful and does so with a magnetic charm rather than bullish force, a complete contrast to the other mechanics who try to get what they want through force. Bozier brings out a quality in Luca that make people want to please him and submit. It is a phenomenal performance. Cordelia Braithwaite (MB The Red Shoes, MB The Midnight Bell, MB The Nutcracker, Ballet Shoes – National Theatre) is our dynamic Lana and we see her shackled and frustrated life given fresh hope when she first meets Luca. She knows what she wants and how to get it, and her determined strength can be seen in every detailed movement, right down to a single flash of her eyes. As the story develops and her world becomes more unpredictable, we are torn between the right and wrong of her decisions, and perhaps witness her power evolving into something more sinister. It is so beautifully and subtly done that you don’t see it coming.

Angelo is performed with outstanding character progression by Leonardo McCorkindale (MB The Red Shoes, MB Swan Lake, MB Romeo & Juliet, Death In Venice) for he starts as a vulnerable, bullied and ridiculed member of the garage, but meeting Luca changes everything. The growth in character from frightened, to gentle and loving, to passionate, fuelled by anger, and then revenge, is pitched at a wonderful pace, making the entire performance an emotive pull as we empathise with his trajectory. McCorkindale’s dance in the prison stood out for me as a highlight, exploring movement whilst shackled and being tender whilst imprisoned, was a moving moment. We are equally witness to Dino Alfano’s life unravelling courtesy of Alan Vincent (MB Swan Lake, MB The Nutcracker, MB The Midnight Belle, Dracula, Dirty Dancing) and again this is another incredible performance that allows us to have confused feelings about his character. I love these complex and multi layered characters that are brought to life because it makes them so much more real and gritty to watch. There is some amazing duet work with Bozier that is so light, tender and gentle, whilst creating scenes of mental torment, whilst other scenes he performs are full of brutal anger, dominance and violence, allowing his skills to shine at both ends of the spectrum. A note of interest is that Vincent created the original role of Luca when the show opened in 2000! Anna-Maria de Freitas (MB The Red Shoes, MB Swan Lake, MB Edward Scissorhands, Oklahoma) embodies the shy but loyal and determined Rita and brings a calming presence to the testosterone fuelled reactions. There is also a refreshing trait of leading with love instead of sex, and her loyalty is unparallelled. Rita is perhaps the closest thing to a moral compass that Harmony has and we see this in the anguish that de Freitas brings to the role, a conflicting cocktail of quiet determination, fear, loyalty, and shyness, fuelled by unwavering love.

Sir Matthew Bourne’s choreography and direction, as you’d expect, is second to none. The ingenuity and creativity are off the scale. The ability to story tell, create atmosphere, tension, drama, and unique and intriguing movement is effervescent and thrilling. The way that the cast use each others bodies as an extension of their own is mesmerising, opening up a whole new style of choreography that extends way beyond duet work, for they merge into one. Similarly, the use of set and props within movement and travelling is fascinating. Tables, cars, prison cells, chairs, bars, even humans, are utilised to create ways of transporting themselves across the set, to extend the story, and to wow us with the dancers agility and effortless ease. Why walk or leap from A to B when you can fan kick over a table, onto a bar, flip yourself upside down across some prison cells and roll across someones shoulders? And it is all so gentle that they make it look so temptingly easy, which we all know it isn’t. The imagination of the choreography and story telling is so fresh, exciting, and inventive that this is a brilliantly invigorating piece to watch. Moments such as slowing the cast down mid dance to dance in slow motion so we can see a break out of the inner thoughts of specific characters in that moment in time, or a second scene playing simultaneously to another so we can see that Angelo may be talking to Rita but his mind is elsewhere, replaying his torture, and so this is played out for us to witness. This is a rare thing to watch on stage, especially in dance, and it works with invigorating effect. Sir Matthew Bourne never stops experimenting and I am so lucky to watch, learn, and soak it all in with nothing but admiration.

The genius of the multi award-winning Lez Brotherston has once again succeeded in wowing with set and costume design. The set starts as a detailed slice of the small town Harmony, complete with the diner, tables, the office, the garage (even with cars) and intricately woven fire escapes, and nooks and crannies for the cast to use as their dance playground. It looks like a film set and it somehow immediately invokes excitement and believability. The second act sees the set tweeked a little so that the garage becomes a cabaret nightclub, and the offices a prison, but then, as if by magic, they transpose back and I have no idea how this happens but it really is like magic. There are no moving sets wheeled on and off, it just changes, and I think the clever use of Chris Davey and Paul Groothuis combined lighting and sound provide a magical smoke and mirrors effect to dazzle us into seeing and hearing only what they want us to. It is exceptionally clever and never have such big set changes been so slick and invisible. I also have to mention that there is even a car race with two moving cars, again combined with lighting and sound to give us an incredibly real and cinematic scene that brings the wow factor ten fold! There are in fact, so many moments throughout that will blow your mind, for lighting can take you from a sweltering day in unforgiving heat and birds merrily chirping away, to a moonlit night with danger lurking round every corner and ominous sounds filling the air.

Orchestrator Terry Davies has written an epic story through music featuring Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite, inspired from Bizet’s Carmen, that inspires, connects, and emotes to perfection. Any version of Carmen comes with the expectation of an epic score, capable of moving us beyond the theatre, out of our heads, and directly into our hearts so we are led by instinctual emotion. This score brings all of this together in one whirlwind experience that will leave you breathless. It delves right into the big, well known numbers and they are powerful, instinctual, and rousing. This is its own version so they are free to mix up the order, loop, repeat, mash, and mould into the most unique and dynamic musical score that will leave your pulse racing and your heart pounding. Right from the opening, we are thrown headfirst into the most enigmatic and recognisable Carmen, as Luca struts onto the stage, needing little more than him holding the audience and the cast with his gaze. The music does the rest.

The Car Man is a much-coveted production to be a part of in the dance world, for its inventive choreography is refreshing, earthy, gritty, contemporary, and challenging, let alone the acting that is required of these dancers. It was the first ballet to include bisexuality as a major part of the plot, and one of very few who can call themselves a true dance thriller, with epic plot twists that literally leave the audience gasping with shock as the story unfolds. It is easy to understand why both dancers and audiences are drawn to this piece again and again for it stands alone with its intention and achievements and keeps you completely hooked from beginning to end. I cannot recommend enough and it is a great show to anyone wanting to try a dance show for the first time too as it is so full of drama, tension and epic story telling, with acting at the forefront of every dance move, you truly will feel like you are witnessing a new art form. These performers never stop. Their character development and involvement is continual, so even if a main character is centre stage having a fight, or an ensemble is centre stage dancing the most intriguing canon, you can always look around the peripheries of the stage and find another performer still in character, working their socks off to deploy additional snippets of the story, little nuggets of information and detail that make this an fully rounded, exceptional show. The Car Man is a gripping, rippling, slice of genius! It is its own breed of brilliance and pushes the boundaries of performance to the most intoxicating and powerful music, with the most exquisite cast and creatives. Go and watch! You will not be disappointed.

WE SCORE THE CAR MAN...