A New Ballet at Sadler's Wells. At the New Theatre.
THE THEATRE
WHAT a pleasure to be able to hail a real English masterpiece, a ballet which deserves to compare with many of the Productions of Diaghilev's great period. Well, there is no doubt about it, for the new ballet, Le Fes tin de l'Araignie (The Spider's Banquet), pre- sented this week by the Sadler's Wells company at the New Theatre, is the most perfectly satisfying and artistic thing our famous English company has yet done—and it already has a lot of fine work to its credit. That unity, which was such a strong feature of Mr. Hurry and Mr. Helpmann's Hamlet, also prevails here, but it happens that this music by the gifted nineteenth-century French composer Rousel is less obvious and melodramatic than Tchaikowsky's Hamlet ; and if Helpmann owed something to Shakespeare, so Miss Andree Howard may have owed something to Karel Capek's "Insect Play," yet in both cases the choreographers have soared igto an originality of their own. As for the decor and dresses by Mr. Michael Ayrton, they far surpass in invention and imaginative strength and delicacy anything done for Capek's Play. Indeed, choreography and design march together, and not only fit the music, but bring out into new and fascinating relief its various expressive elements. There is not a single failure in costume, and there is throughout a superb colour harmony that never sacrifices quality to an obvious effect. As for Miss Howard, whose choreography to Lady Into Fox showed an unusual flair for the character of animal movement, here she takes her place as the most gifted of living choreographers in that vein. Her Spider is a masterpiece, and the two Grubs show what virtuosity in significant rhythmic movement really means. Here is something to hold the sensitive spectator spellbound. I could write at great length about this remarkable work of art, but I shall say no more now than advise everyone to go to see it without delay. Mr. Constant Lambert conducted with his customary musical sensitiveness, and the occasion was a real triumph for everyone concerned, including Celia Franca as the Spider, and Mavis Jackson and June Vincent as the two marvellous Grubs. JAMES REDFERN.
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