The celebration of Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s work on the 25th anniversary of his death in itself seems a little gruesome and the programming rather heavy handed.
But as Lady Deborah MacMillan worked on the choices with Royal Ballet artistic director Kevin O’Hare, there is little we can say.
At its heart, to put it nicely, The Judas Tree’s brutal treatment of a woman by a bunch of randy workmen was severely handicapped by Lauren Cuthbertson’s utter lack of any come hither approach.
Dressed in white tights and a sexy corset by designer Jock McFayden, she often lay spreadeagled on the stage.
Whether due to boredom or waiting for the next customer was a puzzle.
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The piece was set in a wrecker’s yard where Thiago Soares was foreman and boy has he improved.
Thinner, fashionably bearded and eye-catchingly confident, his stage presence was riveting.
Unfortunately Edward Watson was allowing no one to hog the limelight.
Watson, a fine dancer and actor, has also discovered the eye-catching value of wildly waving his arms as though they have something else to say.
Unfortunately his exaggerated signalling sidetracked Soares and the emotional conflict that led to his character’s suicide.
Isaac Hernandez, like all great dancers, combines technical mastery with emotional reality and after the interval led us and the English National Ballet into MacMillan’s Song Of The Earth with a gracious ease.
However, grey and black costumes on a massive black stage pinned our eyes on the dancers’ faces and only Erina Takahashi risked a smile.
This was for about an hour and Mahler’s music is far from bouncy.
Looking on the bright side, this sombre approach was an opportunity to really concentrate on the artists.
They all have a gift for movement, or “real dancing,” which compensated for their serious faces.
The production, like the whole evening, was superbly rehearsed and the dancers looked stunning.
My neighbour, a complete stranger, turned to me at one point and just said: “World class.”
I couldn’t have put it better myself.