Matthew Bourne: ‘We tell stories. It’s what we’re best at’

“The big fear, the challenge, was to tell a story in a big space.” When Matthew Bourne was approached by the Royal Albert Hall to help celebrate its 150th birthday, the choreographer’s first thought was a “best of” evening “like a prom with a big orchestra and a compère”. But then came a change of heart. “I suddenly thought: what am I doing this for? We tell stories. It’s what we’re best at.”

He had plenty to choose from — his famous male-led Swan Lake could surely be reworked for arena presentation, ditto his candy-coloured Nutcracker — but Bourne picked The Car Man, his noir love triangle danced to Bizet. “It’s the most epic and melodramatic,” he tells me during rehearsals for the 14-performance run, which opens on Thursday.

Bourne’s company, New Adventures, has been telling this particular story — a sexy drifter, a bored wife, an inconvenient husband, a lovelorn gay mechanic — since 2000. The show has altered considerably with each revival but the vast stage and long sightlines of the Albert Hall meant another overhaul. The original cast of 17 has been upped to 39, the 14-man orchestra increased to 25 and Lez Brotherston’s seedy Midwest garage has been scaled up and supplemented by billboards serving as movie screens that will highlight key points.

“We did talk about having all the solos and duets filmed — like they do in concerts,” Bourne says, “but halfway through the process I thought: if we can’t tell the story with the performers, then we shouldn’t be doing it, so we’re just doing complementary moments — almost like film close-ups.” The sheer size of the space requires the dancers to dance a lot “louder”: “You need to hold on to a gesture a little bit longer so that everyone has time to see it.”

The role of the drifter, Luca, will be shared between Will Bozier and Richard Winsor, onetime star of Casualty, the BBC’s medicated soap. Winsor has danced and/or created almost every major role in the New Adventures repertoire and has been appearing in The Car Man for more than two decades. “I’ve done the show three times and this is my sixth character,” he says. In 2007, he was playing the hapless Angelo “but now, 15 years later, I’m the charismatic alpha male, his polar opposite”.

Winsor’s run as Tony Manero in the recent revival of Saturday Night Fever at Sadler’s Wells might help him here, as will the research material Bourne always supplies for even the smallest role: crib sheets, photographs and a mass of viewing homework. This magpie process draws inspiration from a host of movies: West Side Story, Grease, Fight Club and, most significantly, the three film versions of James M Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice. Winsor is pretty familiar with this background material by now but likes to create his own back story: “I feel like Luca didn’t have a father. [He was] an only child [with] a mother who doted on him.”

In the past, New Adventures’ cast lists have been sexed up with guest stars — the Royal Ballet’s Adam Cooper was Bourne’s first Swan, Lynn Seymour played the wicked stepmother in Cinderella, and American Ballet Theatre’s Marcelo Gomes starred in the 2015 revival of The Car Man — but Bourne no longer feels the need to import talent.

I love the fact that there was a team of people who all got better at doing what they were doing by working on the next project

“I try not to,” he says. “Occasionally it seems like a great idea, but it doesn’t make the company feel that great to bring people in. In this one we have got Zizi Strallen coming back, but she’s been in several shows before and I don’t see her as a guest, I see her as part of the company.”

Bourne’s commitment to his dancers and their career development has enabled him to build a loyal team. Apprentices become stars, stars evolve into coaches and administrators. Even non-company members can be transformed by the New Adventures experience. Guesting with Bourne has been a showbiz finishing school for Royal Ballet guests such as Matthew Ball (the Swan in the 2018 revival) and several of the non-professionals involved in Lord of the Flies (co-written by Bourne and Scott Ambler) have gone on to great things.

Bourne talks proudly of this long-running community dance project. “Callum Scott Howells was nominated for a Bafta for [the TV mini-series] It’s a Sin. He was one of our Lord of the Flies boys. Michael O’Reilly [star of the Dirty Dancing stage show] was one of our boys. It had quite a big effect on helping people decide where they wanted to go in life.”

Focusing so strongly on New Adventures means it will be some time before he choreographs another musical, despite the critical and financial success of Oliver!, My Fair Lady and Mary Poppins.

“I made a decision a few years ago to really concentrate on the company. Even my love of MGM musicals and stuff: I love the fact that there was a team of people who all got better at doing what they were doing by working on the next project: teaching someone to sing who couldn’t sing; teaching someone to dance who couldn’t dance.” Another consideration is the lack of autonomy: “Why go into a musical or a film where it’s a producer-run thing more than anything?”

This need for artistic control means that a Bourne scenario is precisely that: strictly no dramaturges. The master storyteller pulls a face at the mere mention of them: “I don’t agree with those. That’s the choreographer’s job. Don’t get someone else in to tell you what to do. That’s ridiculous. And it isn’t pure because you didn’t work it out for yourself. I think that’s why it’s often more confusing when you involve other people. I don’t believe in scenarios in programmes either: it’s my job to tell the story, not your job to read it all beforehand. If you don’t get it, then there’s something I need to do about it.”

The musical royalties are extremely welcome but sole control is very precious to him. “I’m so lucky that I can come up with an idea, work with my regular colleagues and just do it. That is a rarity for most choreographers — even for directors. Why give that up?”

June 9-19, royalalberthall.com

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