Ballet Review

Title: The Faerie Queen

Company: Ballet BC

Principal Dancers: Simone Orlando, Donald Sales, Makaila Wallace, Jones Henry, Maggie Forgeron, Léon Feizo-Gas, Shannon Smith, Marianne Bauer, Alexis Fletcher, Racheal Prince, Melissa Morrissey, Shannon Ferguson, James Gnam, Peter Smida, Brad Brannen, Connor Gnam

Choreographer: John Alleyne

Composers: Michael Bushnell, Owen Underhill (adapted from Purcell)

Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre Vancouver

Run: Nov 7-9 2008

Reviewed by: Tessa Perkins (Vancouver Correspondent)

This ballet based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream marks many firsts for Ballet BC. It was their first story ballet, their first full length original ballet, and also Alleyne’s first full length work as a choreographer. Since the first staging of this work in 2000, it has become one of the company’s most popular and requested ballets and a signature of their repertoire. In collaboration with CBC, The Faerie Queen was adapted into a film version to be broadcasted across the nation.

With such an enchanting story filled with love, magic, and deception, the show is pure joy from beginning to end. Puck (Orlando) is the character who holds all the power throughout the ballet, and she is fittingly the first dancer on the stage, and also the last. It is due to Puck’s meddling that the four lovers become so confused, but in the end she sets things right and teaches a few lessons in the process. The confusion begins when Hermia (Forgeron) and Lysander (Feizo-Gas) run away together to escape Hermia’s ward, Egeus (Henry), who is trying to make her marry Demetrius (Smith) to whom she is betrothed. Demetrius is in love with Hermia and follows them into the forest. Meanwhile, Helena (Bauer) is in love with Demetrius and also runs after them.

Once in the fairy world, the lovers fall victim to Puck’s games with her special purple flower, the love-blossom. When this flower is rubbed on the eyelids while a person sleeps, they will fall in love with the first creature they see upon waking. Oberon, King of the fairies (Sales), learns of this flower and decides to teach his wife Titania, queen of the fairies (Wallace), a lesson on selfishness. The results are very comical and keep the audience well entertained as Puck cackles her wicked laugh.

The sets props for the show are simple yet effective in creating the forest and fairy world. Two drooping trees make up most of the background, while Puck plays with her special flower and her flower trumpet. To represent the love between Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius, strings of flowers are used. In the prologue, they dance with the strings entwined around each other creating a visual connection. At the end, when all is well again, the strings of flowers hang above the lovers as they dance blissfully. The costumes were also very simple; unitards were used for the fairies, and the lovers wore simple white dresses, shirts, and pants.

This show is a farewell performance for Donald Sales who has been with the company since 2004. He gave a very strong performance along with all his fellow dancers. The four lovers had great chemistry and effortlessly displayed their struggles to gain love. The fairies were beautifully choreographed and always in time with each other, wonderfully complimenting the other cast members. 

As Puck ends the show crouched under a shower of falling petals, love and hope is restored to the kingdom, and the audience is returned to the real world.