BALLET
Bonne-Bouche. (Covent Garden.) NnvETTE DE VALOIS'S idea of commissioning two choreographers from the Sadler's Wells Theatre company to compose ballets for Covent Garden has met with the success it deserves. John Cranko, like Andre:: Howard, has produced a work which is both compact and unified, and he has shown that he, too, is able to extend himself to meet the requirements of so large a theatre. The choreographer has written his own scenario, and has worked it out with such clarity, has made each point so neatly and emphatically, that he has been able to dispense with programme notes—the- necessity for which I always take to be a sign of weakness. Bonne-Bouche has a delightfully amusing little story—a gold-seeking mother and„ daughter who entirely ignore the dictates of the heart in their efforts to secure a materially suitable husband for the latter—by no means original in its essence, but treated 'with a freshness which is one of Cranko's most endearing qualities. Quite naturally a ballet of this genre requires a good deal of miming, but this has not been allowed to outweigh the dancing which contains much that is personal and inventive. There is some weakness at the beginning of the last scene, for it is disappointing to find, as the curtain goes up, that the " neighbours " are still jogging about in the same way and in exactly the same costurdes as "some months" previously. It might have been better had a longer lapse of time been suggested, with the Square's inhabitants somewhat older, and the fresh young girl decidedly passee. This, or some such device, would have removed the slight feeling of stagnation of which I, for one, was conscious. Nevertheless, Bonne-Bouche gave its first-night audience some forty minutes of delight and merriment which were obviously shared by all the dancers. Each contributed so wholeheartedly that it is difficult to single any one person from the cast. Pamela May and Pauline Clayden as mother and daughter respectively, Brian Shaw as the constant lover, and Alexander Grant as the Black King, are names which come first to mind, but equally, excellent and wittily observed were all the smaller roles.. Of Cranko's two collaborators, Arthur Oldham has composed lively and effective music, and Osbert Lancaster—the obvious artist for such a work—has designed sets and costumes which might easily have stolen the show. That they did not do so is yet another tribute to the. young and growing
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