The Midnight Bell, devised and choreographed by Matthew Bourne to music by Terry Davies and mimed to pre-recorded period songs, is billed as “intoxicated tales from darkest Soho” and shows Bourne’s skill as a master non-verbal storyteller.
The Midnight Bell is set in London in the early 1930s and is based on a trilogy of novels by Patrick Hamilton, famed playwright of two classic murder thrillers, Rope and Gaslight.
The novels were published under the collective title of Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky. Bourne and his New Adventures company recreate Hamilton’s seedy world with its “furtive relationships, erotic obsessions, drunken oblivion and bittersweet longings.”
The Midnight Bell is a pub, where people who are combatting feelings of isolation and loneliness and searching for love, can meet. The working-class characters include a waiter, a barmaid, a prostitute, a lonely spinster, a cad, an out of work actress, a chorus boy and a policeman. There are six interconnecting failing relationships. It’s the gay relationship that makes the strongest impact.
The sordid locations change smoothly from pub to boarding house to street and back again. The unglamorous set and costumes are by Lez Brotherston. The murky atmospheric lighting is by Paule Constable.
The non-verbal storylines rely on the body language, acting and instant characterisations by a talented ensemble rather than on extended choreography. The movement is always interesting and there is also some period dance hall dancing to open the second half.
The Midnight Bell, following its London run, will be touring 12 venues in the UK. You can check the dates by following this link.
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