When love hasn’t the ghost of a chance

REVIEW: Giselle – Malvern Theatres (Tuesday, November 11, for one night only).

Showtime! stars rating: *   *   *   *   *

LIKE some gigantic forest beast, composer Adolphe Adam’s score crashes and pounds its way through the woodland haunt of spirit women who have died from heartbreak after being jilted by false lovers.

Vengeance permeates this misted moonlit air, the dankness of retribution softened only by the urgent, trilling woodwinds which announce the arrival of diaphanous entities intent on settling scores.

Endlessly compelling from start to finish, this production by Newport-based company Ballet Cymru faultlessly commands one’s attention as the story’s achingly tender moments give way to the decay of darker tones and loves lost.

The story of Giselle is a romantic tale of innocent love and betrayal, of the philandering Count Albrecht and a trusting peasant maid, Giselle. And although she has a weak heart, Giselle loves to dance.

Yes, it’s a familiar story. Basically, Giselle falls for the posh boy at the village wine festival and from that moment, the writing’s on the wall. For silver-tongued lothario Albrecht is already engaged to another…

Isobel Holland is wonderfully convincing as the wronged Giselle, her every movement and facial expression conveying the wafer-thin emotions that divide the deliriously rampant elation of new love and the bleakest of despair that inevitably ensues.

The predatory Albrecht (Jacob Hornsey) combines floppy-haired abandon with a dastardly elegance, seducing Giselle in a flurry of dazzlingly athletic lifts which literally sweep the girl off her feet.

But tragically, on discovering the truth, Giselle dies and is buried deep in the forest. She has now become a Wili. The Wilis are ghostly apparitions of folklore, women who have died after being betrayed by faithless lovers on the eve of their weddings.

They are ruled over by a Queen, on this occasion played with delicious ruthlessness by Jakob Myers, who brings just the right combination of death stare menace and benevolent control freakery to the role.

The Wilis’ strategy is to entice faithless lovers to dance all night until they die from exhaustion. But Giselle still loves Albrecht, and helps him to stay alive until the dawn, when the Wilis lose their power…

Ballet Cymru is an award-winning and innovative company with a trademark irresistible quirkiness, clearly unafraid to think outside the box office. For example on this occasion, by casting a man as the Queen of the Wilis, results in  a creative decision that is entirely credible and successful.

The company has visited Malvern several times in the past and never fails to thrill and entertain what is rapidly becoming a faithful crowd of fans.

We therefore all now look forward to their return… and hopefully will not have to wait too long.