LORD OF THE FLIES
P H O T O :
I I
E R C R C H M O N D
Left: rehearsals at the RSAMD. Above, top: Swan Lake. Above, bottom: Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker!. Below, left to right: Matthew Docherty; Albert McLure; Bruce Summers.
dance thing I’ve done, so I never thought I’d make it – I was really surprised and happy that I did.’ Coming to the project with a little more experience is 21-year-old Albert McLure. Currently studying for an HNC in dance at Anniesland College, he found out about the workshops from a lecturer. ‘Just for curiosity’s sake I went along,’ he recalls. ‘I’d heard of Matthew Bourne, but at that stage I didn’t realise it would lead to a performance – I just thought they were offering a series of workshops. It’s a complete honour to have been selected without having to go through the normal training and audition process that
professionals have to. In a way, this was an audition, but they masked it quite well so it wasn’t as scary.’ Like the rest of the boys, McLure has some trepidation about performing on one of Scotland’s most important stages, coupled with a huge amount of excitement.
‘It’s quite a scary thought just now,’ he says. ‘But I think it’s one of those things that you’re just going to have to deal with on the night. I think the adrenalin will kick in and it will be a buzz.’ Unlike the novel, which is set on an island, the show takes place in a deserted theatre. As the noise of civil unrest rages outside, the boys
appear to have been left there for their own protection. But with no adults around to supervise, they start to create their own rules, until life inside the theatre becomes as hostile as outside. Although the lead characters will be played by New Adventures dancers, all the local boys involved will be given genuine parts to play. ‘What I don’t want is for them to be scenery,’ says co-director and choreographer Scott Ambler, ‘or to hang around the back while the professional dancers do their thing. So a lot of the choreography is based on the games and scenes they’ve been setting up over the past few months, because I want them to be part of the creative process.’
New Adventures has long been seen as the cool, accessible face of dance for those uninitiated in the art form. So for those boys brave enough to get involved and withstand the teasing, the payoff may well come when they’re up on stage, and those doing the ‘slagging’ are looking up at them. ‘I’m sure a lot of the guys might get a bit of stick from their mates,’ says Ambler. ‘But I suspect when their mates see them in the show, they’ll be a little bit jealous. Because the kind of work we do isn’t ballet, tights and prettiness, it’s going to look like a bunch of feral lads on stage, actually creating a war.’
Lord of the Flies, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Wed 2–Sat 5 Mar. 17 Feb–3 Mar 2011 THE LIST 11