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When Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man premiered in 2000 for his company, New Adventures, it offered a radical reinvention of Georges Bizet’s Carmen. Rather than attempting a scene-by-scene modernisation of the opera, Bourne extracted its central themes of desire, jealousy, obsession, and destruction, placing them within the visual and dramatic world of classic American film noir. The result is a world far removed from 19th-century Seville. The action unfolds in a 1960s American roadside diner and garage, a claustrophobic community where hidden desires quickly surface. Bourne adopts the conventions of the film noir: an unhappy marriage, adultery, murder, sexual manipulation, and characters whose moral compromises gradually lead them towards disaster. At the centre of this turbulent world is Luca, a charismatic outsider whose arrival exposes the weaknesses and desires of those around him. His magnetic presence draws in Lana, the dissatisfied wife of diner and garage owner Dino, as well as Angelo, a vulnerable young man whose attraction to Luca leaves him open to exploitation. Luca manipulates Angelo’s devotion until the young man becomes implicated in Dino’s murder, transforming a story of passion into one about the destructive power of desire when it becomes a tool of control. Ashley Shaw brings considerable depth to Lana, capturing both her sensuality and her frustration with a life that has become emotionally empty. Will Bozier gives Luca an undeniable charisma, but in some of their pas de deux the athleticism seems more important than the eroticism. The physical demands of the choreography are impressive, yet the underlying psychological tension between attraction and manipulation is occasionally less clearly expressed. One of the production’s most affecting moments comes when Luca dances with the memory of the murdered Dino, played by Danny Reubens, revealing a rare glimpse of vulnerability beneath his calculated exterior. Harry Ondrak-Wright’s portrayal of Angelo provides the emotional centre of the ballet. He captures the character’s innocence, loneliness, and vulnerability with great sensitivity. His relationship with Anna-Maria De Freitas’s Rita brings a welcome tenderness to the darker narrative, and their pas de deux are among the evening’s most affecting sequences. Their connection offers a glimpse of genuine affection in a world otherwise dominated by deception and self-interest. The ensemble work is consistently accomplished, with Bourne creating a convincing portrait of a small community where social interactions conceal rivalries, desires, and suspicion. The dancers inhabit the setting fully, contributing to the production’s cinematic atmosphere and its sense of a world gradually spiralling out of control. At times, however, the demands of storytelling appear to take precedence over the choreography. Bourne’s gift for theatrical narrative is undeniable, but moments of humour and narrative detail occasionally interrupt the beauty and emotional power of the dancing. Terry Davies faces the equally complex task of reshaping Bizet’s music to serve Bourne’s darker vision, and his adaptation largely succeeds. The score preserves the emotional force of the original while creating a darker, more atmospheric soundscape. However, the use of the famous Toreador Song is less convincing; its familiarity makes it feel somewhat detached from the production’s noir aesthetic. By contrast, “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” and the Habanera are seamlessly integrated, retaining their sensual power within this new context. With its striking design, complex characters, and fearless examination of desire, manipulation, and betrayal, The Car Man is one of Bourne’s more ambitious works. It reinterprets rather than replicates the emotional landscape of Bizet's original, and it succeeds in creating a compelling theatrical world of its own. Here, passion is not an expression of liberation, as it is for Carmen, but a force that exposes weakness, fuels betrayal, and drives the characters towards inevitable ruin.
Rated: ★★★★
Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Johan Persson
When, Where, Getting there:
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