Matthew Bourne's New Adventures have announced a brand new production to premiere in 2021 - The Midnight Bell.
Exploring the under-belly of 1930s London life where ordinary people emerge from cheap boarding houses nightly to pour out their passions, hopes and dreams in the pubs and bars of fog-bound Soho and Fitzrovia. Step inside The Midnight Bell, a tavern where one particular lonely-hearts club gather to play out their lovelorn affairs of the heart; bitter comedies of longing, frustration, betrayal and redemption.
Inspired by the great English novelist Patrick Hamilton (Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky, Hangover Square) who created some of the most authentic fiction of his era; stories borne out of years of social interactions with the working man and woman at his favourite location - the London Pub.
“Patrick Hamilton’s literary world could be seen as the flip-side of his close contemporary, Noel Coward, whose witty and glamorous world of cocktails and high society made him so fashionable and successful. Hamilton, on the other hand, wrote about the lives of everyday people, full of pathos, comedy and thwarted romance. Indeed his own personal setbacks and increasingly serious drinking problem became the source from which he created his finest and most individual work. More than any other author of the time, Hamilton’s characters speak with the authentic voice of the era and it’s the raw passion and secret lives that lie beneath the conventional exterior that appeals to me so much”
This sounds like exactly the kind of work at which Matthew Bourne excels - he has a real talent for choreographing 'ordinary life' and recreating British literary and cinematic periods. This could be a real winner (and not just in the usual successful Matthew Bourne show sense). The interwar British setting should also give it an appealing and timely relevance in post-Brexit Britain coming out of a pandemic.
The Midnight Bell will also mark the return of Richard Winsor to the company, after a long spell in Casualty (the TV series) and musical theatre roles.
The Midnight Bell is touring to 13 UK venues September to November 2021 (after this the company switches to the delayed Nutcracker! tour. Hopefully further dates will be announced for 2022 (and the dates announced so far includes some relatively modest venues for New Adventures). Perhaps this reflects the nocturnal and intimate nature of the piece?
