Neil Penlington….the Prince of Matthew Bourne’s Turn-Around Version of “Swan Lake”
Meeting Neil Penlington in his dressing room at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco before seeing him on stage as the ill-fated prince was like experiencing the lull before the storm. A slight, rather shy young man with soft brown hair and kind eyes, he gave no clue as to the explosiveness of his portrayal to be seen later that evening. As the tormented prince in Matthew Bourne's "Swan Lake," he reaches deeply within, drawing up a wide range of turbulent emotions. He trails after his steely spined mother to ceremonial events, choreographed with tongue in cheek and poignant wisdom by Bourne. Yet Penlington's immersion into a pet-dog obedient son was frightening. At the moment he meets the Swan, who will give him a life and love of his own, he is quietly contemplating suicide.
Nothing in Penlington's early life could have markedly contributed to his role as the storm-tossed prince growing up in a secluded palace full of evil admonishments from his mother and the cold servants who attended him. "On the contrary," he said smiling. "I grew up in St. Asaph, a seaside village in North Wales. My parents sent me to a wonderful boy's school in England, because they wanted me to have a proper education." He began his dance training at fifteen as part of the school curriculum. "There was something about it I quite liked, and I also knew there was something inside me that would need to come out. I had no idea it would be through the ballet." He set about looking in London for an acting school, sneaking off without telling his parents, and only when he was accepted to one, did he dare reveal his plans. They did not include a proper education.
"My father was not pleased," Penlington continued. "I convinced both of them this was what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a performer. I was still looking to be an actor, until I did some exploring at various dance schools. One of them, The London Studio Centre, offered me a scholarship and an assortment of dance classes."
While in London he took in Bourne's "Nutcracker." "It was all pink and beautiful," he remembered, "a complete opposite of the dark and heavy modern dance I had been studying. What is this - I asked myself. Such energy coming from the stage, I knew then I wanted to be a part of Matthew's work."
When Bourne's "Swan Lake" opened at the Sadler's Wells Theater it was the talk of London. No one had ever seen anything like it. It was a complexity of role reversals with Bourne's imagination to fully embellish it. The Swan Queen (Odette) became a king, bare-chested and costumed in brilliantly conceived Capri pants covered in feathers. The Von Rothbart character was the Prince's valet in a proper morning suit. The mother, whose role is minor in the Petipa-Ivanov version except to insist her son choose a bride, became instead the pivotal controlling force in his life so much so that in the end she has him lobotomized. There is the relationship to the English royal family, a hen-pecked male heir to the throne, a domineering Queen, and an unacceptable fiancée (perchance Fergie?)
For the tenth anniversary tour across the United States just completed, Penlington took over the Prince's role. He had been in Bourne's productions before among them, "Play Without Words," "The Car Man," and "Swan Lake" (a corps swan) when it first came to Broadway. When approached to accept the difficult role for the tour, he thought it would be a marvelous passage for him. "Emotionally, it takes you from anything you have ever experienced to being completely knocked out after the curtain comes down. Frankly, I will need a therapist when I finish this tour," he admitted, with a sarcastic laugh. "I have buried myself in the Prince's life, and it has drained all my energy. Coming off a full week of performances, I am done!"
To prepare for the challenging dynamics of the leading role Penlington went right to the source, Scott Ambler, the original prince. Fortunately, Ambler was in London performing in "Edward Scissorhands" at the time and totally accessible to Penlington. "Scott created the role. Who better to learn from, I thought." And indeed, he is the one Penlington credits with inspiring his own portrayal. Penlington worked intensively with Ambler, absorbing every element of the character he had once built - from the minute the prince is born to his eventual demise. "Scott had constructed a whole life story, a biography, and I simply sponged off him," Penlington admitted. "He loved the role and was delighted to share his love for it with me."
For Penlington, it was not only a larger-than-life acting/dancing role, but also the big shoes of his predecessor to fill. "I do feel gratified that the feedback from Matt and Scott was positive," he said.
The noise of the swans, the sweat, the piercing eyes, the evil incarnate, the emotional tennis match between the prince and his mother drill the audience with its intensity. In addition, the actual choreography is demanding, not a single breeze-through variation in the entire four acts. Neil Penlington has danced and acted the role, conquering his nerves and any feeling of inadequacy to reap stunning reviews in major U.S. cities. He wears the prince's costumes and the turmoil of his psyche with dignity, eloquence, and deep emotional sincerity. The introspective young man from the seaside in Wales took the audiences in the grand cities of the U.S. on a journey, involving them in a passionate, memorable unraveling of a world-renown fairy tale--a "Swan Lake" quite unlike any other.
Matthew Bourne's newest production, "Edward Scissorhands," will be opening in New York in the fall of 2006. Penlington, who was offered a role in the production currently running in London, had chosen to do the prince in the U.S. tour of "Swan Lake" instead. Will we be seeing Penlington's name turn up in the program for "Edward Scissorhands" when it tours the U.S.? "Working for Matthew is so fulfilling, so unbelievably rich an experience," Penlington declared. "I hope not to be separated from his work for too long."