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Royal New Zealand Ballet in "Petrouchka" and "Pineapple Poll" (1993)

Author: Raewyn Whyte

Email: raewyn@url.co.nz

Publication: NZ Listener

Publication Date: 15 September 1993

The threat of bankruptcy at the box office has been successfully banished for the second time this year by the Royal New Zealand Ballet, thanks to the Company's truly inspired decision to stage Petrouchka. First presented in Paris in 1911 as an avant garde extravaganza by Diaghilev's Ballet Russes, the present version is very close to the original. Despite the Company's financial stringencies, there's a vividly detailed set and lavish costumes designed by Raymond Boyce which replicate the famous designs of Alexandre Benois. The Stravinsky score is impeccably presented live by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and adds verve and drama to the dancing. Mikhail Fokine's choreography is lovingly reconstructed by Russell Kerr, and guest dancer Douglas Wright's brilliant interpretation of the role of Petrouchka, the puppet who eventually is freed from his master's torments, is modelled on that of Vaslav Nijinsky, the star of the Ballet Russes production.

Petrouchka is splendid in every way, and has proved to be a hit with audiences. They ooh and aah at the splendor of the set, a convincingly bustling wintry Russian fairground of the late 1890s, just before Lent. They find plenty of action to follow among the cast of sixty performers who throng the fairgrounds, representing every level of society and almost every imaginable kind of activity through crisply-paced dancing and carefully arranged interactions. They respond to The Charlatan's manipulations of his life-like puppets, The Blackamoor, The Ballerina Doll, and Petrouchka, roles which are accurately danced and convincingly characterised.

Petrouchka has enabled the company to meet both artistic and financial goals. It has brought new experiences and challenges to the dancers while helping to diminish the company's accumulated deficit, and it has brought in new audiences, especially in Auckland. It is to be hoped that these new audiences can forgive the Company for pairing Petrouchka with Pinapple Poll, a 1960s adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan themes which today seems vacuous rather than witty or amusing.

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