Reviews South Wales Echo |
For most of us, there are few productions which can make us wide-eyed with wonder onc we've celebrated our seventh birthday but the Imperial Ice Stars' Sleeping Beauty is one of them. The opening night of their UK tour deserved just about every superlative in the book and was rewarded with a rapturous response from the WMC audience. The stage had been transformed with 14 tonnes of ice and sumptuous sets to show off the skills of world class skaters. It was a production which got the heart racing as the evil fairy carabosse (Maria Borovikova) spun from the sky of a darkened forest, hurling venom after being left off Princess Aurora's party list. But she met her match in the Lilac Fairy, Olga Sharutenko, who was equally at home in ballet shoes as skates and was quite mesmerising. Choreography throughout took the breath away as the skaters performed feats normally only seen in an Olympic arena and there were moments of pure theatre too. Mandy Woetzel and her prince Vadim Yarkov produced a performance of terrifying complexity with perfect ease while Anton Klykov as Catalabutte, the court servant, provided the perfect mix of humour and thrilling spectacle. I had a smile on my face for all two and a quarter hours. Book a seat before January 22 and you will too. |
