NONE of Matthew Bourne's adventures, neither his Early Adventures, nor his New Adventures productions of Swan Lake, The Car Man, Edward Scissorhands and Sleeping Beauty, has ever graced a York stage.

Now, however, the 30th anniversary celebrations of the knighted choreographer's company will change all that with a two-day visit of Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures to York Theatre Royal tonight and tomorrow.

"It will be our York debut at last!" says the 57-year-old Londoner. "I don't really have a say in where we go, though I would never say, 'no, please don't go there'! I think that in recent years most of our shows have been large-scale but Early Adventures is mid-scale so it'll fit perfectly into the Theatre Royal, and it's a strain of work that we're going to continue, opening us up to new audiences. I've been very inspired by the audiences, so that's why we're thinking of doing more shows of a similar scale."

York Press:

The Infernal Galop, from Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures. Picture: Johan Persson

Bourne returns to his roots in Early Adventures, a programme of hit pieces that launched his career, his long-time collaboration with set and costume designer Lez Brotherston and the emergence of a balletic style of wit and entertainment that now carries its own Bourne identity.

"It was a period when I was in the shows, when there were six of us in the company – there are nine in the new tour – and we'd tour with the set in the van, we'd roll out the dance floor and ask at the box office how many would be in the audience that night," Bourne recalls. "They'd say, '25', and we'd hope it might go up to 35."

The 30th anniversary tour of Early Adventures not only has a bigger cast than in the early days, but the pieces have been re-designed by Lez Brotherston too. "But the choreography has not changed that much as I wanted it to be a memory of how we started, to show where I've gone since then, from when all the pieces were made on my body," says Bourne.

York Press:

Matthew Bourne: "All the pieces were made on my body," he says. Picture: Hugo Glendinning

"We were quite lucky, quite early on, that we had steady Arts Council funding, very small at first when we get an 'Encouragement' grant of £1,500, which wasn't going to pay a lot of wages. So I supported myself with part-time jobs, working as an usher and in the book shop at the National Theatre, right through from my training days to the first five or six years of the company."

Matthew Bourne's work, whether early or later, has been marked by humour. "There's always been that thread, and sometimes you're unexpectedly moved by it, and now the more moving aspect of the work has increased, though it feels like it still comes from a similar voice to 30 years ago, but now with more people on stage and a bigger budget," he says.

As for the "Bourne identity", how did such a distinctive style emerge? "Well, it was always more a a feeling, a realisation that I came to, that you should do work that is close to you and means something to you, even if it's not current thing or popular at that time," Bourne says. "We've always done our own thing, doing a mixture of things that still has an impact for being quite odd and eccentric, and that's the only way you should work."

York Press:

Paris Fitzpatrick and Daniel Collins in Country, from Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures. Picture: Johan Persson

 

The programme for Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures will include:

•The Infernal Galop: a French dance with English subtitles. This is France as seen by the uptight English imagination, with all the traditional clichés joyously paraded for our entertainment and climaxing in Offenbach's inevitable Can-Can.

•Town And Country: Lie back and think of England. A heartfelt pastiche that explores notions of national character from a bygone era through the evocative music of Edward Elgar, Noël Coward and Percy Grainger.

•Watch With Mother – Seen but not heard? Conkers, Hopscotch, Doctors & Nurses: children’s games can be all-consuming, competitive and sometimes cruel. Based on Joyce Grenfell’s Nursery School sketches and set to Percy Grainger’s own piano compositions and arrangements of Bach and Faure, this 1991 piece has not been seen for nearly 25 years.

Matthew Bourne's Early Adventures, York Theatre Royal, tonight, 7.30pm; Saturday, 2.30pm and 7.30pm. Warning: contains some adult humour; may not be suitable for under-12s.

Choreographer Matthew Bourne will take part in a post-show discussion and Q&A after tonight's performance; free to ticket holders for this performance only.