Family, and the Right Kind of Sparkly Vampire

This post is a bit late, for obvious reasons.

Last weekend, I travelled up to Birmingham, to visit my sister, and to see Sleeping Beauty at the Birmingham Hippodrome. Originally, the plan was for both of my sisters to be there, but K couldn't make it (which was a shame)

I haven't been to a ballet for a while, and I don't think I have ever seen Sleeping Beauty, so I came to it with an open mind. Having seen, and enjoyed, several of Matthew Bourne's previous productions I was expecting something non-traditional, and, light-hearted, and that's what we got.

The ballet opens in 1890 (which, in a neat twist, is the year that the original ballet was first performed), with the Princess's coming of age being in 1911, and the ending, when the sleepers wake up, in 2011.

(Photo (c) Sadlers Wells Theatre)

Bourne has got around the somewhat troubling idea of a total stranger kissing an comatose young woman who immediately falls in love with him by introducing as the Princess Aurora's love interest the gardener, Leo. And the Lilac Fairy (the original Fairy Godmother) is in the production 'Count Lilac', a Vampire Fairy (or Fairy Vampire?) with fangs and wings, who bites Leo so he can survive long enough to wake Aurora. I think I can live with a sparkly vampire who is also a fairy godmother!

The ballet was on the Saturday evening, and on Sunday my cousin and her husband and son came over for lunch - I haven't seen them since my sister's wedding in the summer, and J is not quite  2 and a half yet, so as can be imagined, he has changed and grown a good deal since then.I like him. We had a fun afternoon, and I was sorry to have to leave, especially as it was snowing as I set out, so not a lot of fun to drive in!