Northern Ballet's production of Victoria is bringing a fresh perspective on the life of one of our most depicted monarchs to Milton Keynes Theatre.
Almost every angle of Queen Victoria's life has been explored recently from ITV's recent series starring Jenna Coleman as a young monarch to Dame Judi Dench's depiction of Victoria's relationship with a tall, handsome Indian attendant in the movie Victoria & Abdul.
This production looks at Victoria's life through the eyes of her youngest daughter child Beatrice as she reads the queen's diaries shortly after her death, writes Chris Gregg.
The ballet flashes back to reveal Victoria's eventful life as present day Beatrice watches with a diary in her hand, seeing how the Queen moved on from her husband Alfred's death and found comfort with John Brown. Beatrice disapproves of what she reads and rewrites the diaries, tearing out pages and censoring sections. Eventually, she reaches a better understanding of her mother's life and makes peace with her memory.
There is actually a lot of truth in this story, as Beatrice really did spend three decades changing 43,000 pages of Victoria's journals to make them more acceptable for history.
While the dancing may not be as technically challenging as some of the other ballets we have seen at MK Theatre, internationally renowned choreographer and director Cathy Marston has crafted an elegant and thoughtful story with a range of emotions from heartbreaking grief to falling in love.
Without the aid of the synopsis in the programme, parts of the plot could be difficult to follow but there is a strong basic story with some memorable scenes including a great depiction of Victoria conceiving and giving birth to 9 successive children and a very clever depiction of the Great Exhibition with the dancers as the engine of a massive machine.
There are great performances from Pippa Moore as the older Beatrice and her love interest Liko played by Sean Bates who have a wonderful chemistry. Abigail Prudames returns to MK Theatre in the role of Queen Victoria and brings a regal refinement to the character.
The live orchestra perform Philip Feeney's original score which has a cinematic style, adding to the drama and emotion of the performance without being a distraction.
This is an understated and thoughtful ballet which tells a familiar story from a brand new angle in a medium which really focuses on the human side of Queen Victoria's life.
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