Details

Three one-act ballets each touched in some way by war. Kenneth MacMillan's La Fin du jour captures the glamorous 'la plage' lifestyle of the depression era. A group of trendy, bright young things while away their days with swimming, golf and new-fangled aeroplanes. They studiously ignore the looming threat of war which will eventually call time on their careless enjoyment and high spirits. Robert Helpmann's (Royal Ballet dancer and the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) 1944 ballet Miracle in the Gorbals was a great leap forward for British ballet. Set in a run-down and dangerous Glasgow suburb, it dispensed with all the frippery of traditional ballets, replacing it with a gritty realism that proved an enormous success. After the shock of a girl's suicide, the arrival of a mysterious stranger who is able to bring her back to life creates waves among the violent inhabitants of the tenements. This ground-breaking dance drama is being re-created by Dame Gillian Lynne (a member of the original cast), using original set designs by Edward Burra, a leading 20th-century British artist. David Bintley's Flowers of the Forest is a ballet in two parts. Set to music by Malcolm Arnold,'Four Scottish Dances' presents a light-hearted and nostalgic, 'picture postcard' view of Scotland, whilst 'Scottish Ballad' strikes a more serious note, and is danced to a folk-inspired score by the young Benjamin Britten. The composer's pacifist views found voice in this piece, which takes its title from the famous ballad for the flower of Scottish youth slain on Flodden Field. Birmingham Royal Ballet website.

Creatives/Company

Company: Birmingham Royal Ballet
Music(s): Malcolm Arnold (Flowers of the Forest), Benjamin Britten (Flowers of the Forest), Maurice Ravel (La Fin du jour), Arthur Bliss (Miracle in the Gorbals)
Choreographer(s): David Bintley (Flowers of the Forest), Kenneth MacMillan (Flowers of the Forest), Gilian Lynne (Miracle in the Gorbals after Robert Helpmann)
Costume: Jan Blake (Flowers of the Forest)
Lighting(s): Peter Teigen (Flowers of the Forest), John B. Read (Flowers of the Forest), Peter Teigen (Miracle in the Gorbals)
Design(s): Ian Spurting (Flowers of the Forest), Adam Wiltshire (Miracle in the Gorbals after Edward Burra)
Other: Michael Benthall (Miracle in the Gorbals - scenario)