about production
Chelsea, 1965. Behind the privileged façade of domestic social order lies a struggle for power, territory and sexual domination.
In a suave Chelsea home an urbane master and his beautiful fiancee welcome their new manservant, Prentice. What follows will change their lives forever - and prove a surprising truth about love.
Sexy, chic and thrillingly original, this dance drama is a spellbinding carnival of seduction, lust and power. Dazzling and dexterous, the versatile company stylishly evoke the darker side of the free-loving Sixties. Inspired by the 1963 film The Servant , this enthralling event is delightfully comic, scandalous and witty.
Play Without Words won the 2003 Olivier Awards for Best Entertainment and Best Theatre Choreographer.
dates
Curve, Leicester29 June - 7 July 2012
Evenings 7:30
Matinees 2:15
Box Office: 0116 242 3595
www.curveonline.co.uk
Sadler's Wells, London
12 July - 5 August 2012
Evenings 7:30
Matinees 2:30 & 4pm
Box Office: 0844 412 4300
www.sadlerswells.com
Theatre Royal, Norwich
7 - 11 August 2012
Evenings tbc
Matinees tbc
Box Office: 01603 630 000
www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk
reviews
The Daily Telegraph
"A groovily shagtastic and blazingly original show … Matthew Bourne’s Play Without Words is an absolute cracker- funny, sexy, sinister, nostalgic, brilliantly stylish."
The Times
"A vibrant, wicked satire of class conflict and sexual desire set in Swinging Sixties London and told exclusively through movement and music"
Sunday Express
"His brevity, light touch and carefully controlled buffoonery roll the action along, the whole infinitely more than the sum of its many parts"
The Guardian
"A period piece that is skewed, pointed and darkened with a wickedly contemporary imagination"
Daily Mail
"The movement is loaded with intent and ambiguity, so that you never really notice any balletic extremities, the performers skills are battened down into the seductive meaning of a show that will delight and surprise yo"
