Love, Longing, and Loneliness at The Midnight Bell

Matthew Bourne’s award-winning The Midnight Bell returned to Liverpool Playhouse and received a standing ovation from the audience who witnessed this contemporary dance extravaganza.

This was a highly professional dance sensation!  This performance adeptly told the stories of the many people who frequented the London pub – The Midnight Bell.  The exceptionally expressive dance routines interweaved and juxtaposed the lives of the eight central characters. 

It was an extraordinary performance over the two acts which showcased the skill of the dancers and talent of the choreographers; the performance did not require any words to be spoken.  

The set is definitely worthy of a mention as it slickly changed from a pub setting to a boarding house, to the seedy streets of Soho with ease. The props and costumes were in keeping with the era and never hindered the expression or movement of the dancers.This was a play/performance inspired by the great English novelist Patrick Hamilton (Twenty Thousand StreetsUnder 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 – a 1930s London Pub.  Here he told the story of ordinary people who emerge from cheap boarding houses nightly to pour out their passions, hopes and dreams in the pubs and fog-bound streets of Soho. 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.