Based on the film with Johnny Depp, Edward Scissorhands is a curious production which, like other Bourne pieces, tries to upend our notions of what traditional dance is all about.
Bourne is interested in the concept of the outsider, the man whose values and behaviour do not quite fit in with what is regarded as normal by formal society.
In Swan Lake the prince fell in love with a male swan and the result was rejection by man and beast, leading inevitably to death.
And it was the same measured take on moral corruption in Bourne’s equally splendid Dorian Gray, where stark white sets contrasted in a clinical way with the slide into the abyss of Dorian himself.
Edward Scissorhands does none of these things and is more Mad Magazine than moralistic tract.
Scissorhands has long metallic scissors where most people have hands.
He is shaped a la Frankenstein in a Gothic setting, with lots of thunder crashes and dark, moody skies, which tell us in no uncertain terms that something unnatural is afoot.
Eventually the handicapped Edward, who has great difficulty picking up a glass of water, ends up in a middle-class housing complex in 1950s America.
But once that story structure is established, what is left? In true Bourne tradition Edward is the Outsider once more, cut off from the barbecues, cheer-leaders and similar conventions of American society by his physical deformity.
Dominic North danced the lead role very well, and considering the many inches of shiny steel dangling from his wrists, he did it very well indeed, although the choreography was more colourful than dangerous.
The sets were designed by Lez Brotherson, whose version of the housing estate suggested a stultifying sameness that bordered slyly on the satirical, as did his wasp-waisted, pushy American women.
The conventional society, with its flappers and college girls, its campus bullies and formalised parents, danced up a fast-moving storm as they celebrated Christmas (one of the longest passages in the whole evening which seemed to go on forever, with snow falling on the revellers and Edward not quite getting the picture) and summer, which ushered in the amusingly sultry, red-haired, estate vamp, desperate to get Edward into bed.
Finally, as with all Outsiders, Edward is got rid off, although the stage confusion made it impossible to work out how. Some good, lively dancing and colourful miniatures gave a cheerful audience a decent evening for its money, but to my mind this is not Bourne triumphant.
Runs until Saturday, February 14.
