Carmen With A Difference: Johan Inger’s Carmen @ Sadler’s Wells, London
A compelling fresh take on Carmen by the English National Ballet, choreographed Johan Inger’s. Less classical ballet and more contemporary dance, moving concrete and mirrored backdrops are used to create the harsh and hidden world. We feel how closed in and intense this town is. However, the Toreador is full sequins and spectacular glory, dazzling Carmen. Sometimes the dancers speak too! Dancers’ legs take the place of words, almost becoming a character in themselves, particularly for Carmen, as she positions herself in full view of the latest powerful man.
Following Prosper Mérimée’s 1845 novella, we delve into Don José’s murderous obsession with Carmen and increasing jealousy and insecurity. The costumes are wonderful, individualised, but frilled, fluttering wonderfully during the dancing, and we get a beautiful, more classical duet between Carmen and Don José in their run away life together. Carmen does get to keep her distinctive red dress.
The women of the tobacco factory are divided into two groups — Team Carmen and Carmen rivals. There is a fight between Carmen and another woman (their height differences are really emphasised here, as well as the world where power and control are all), and Carmen is rescued from police custody after slashing the other woman’s face. But we see how Carmen is pushed around and put upon. The only power she has is herself and using her body and her sexuality is her only way of achieving control and power over others. This rivalry is carried through every time the groups of women see each other. Similarly when Don José searches desperately for Carmen, he is mocked by the same women who pass by.
We see how Carmen uses her sexuality to survive, with one powerful man after another. The only one she perhaps chooses for herself is the dazzling starry Toreador. We can’t tell if (unlike other versions) she loves Don José or whether he was younger (and therefore more intriguing) than the soldier Zuniga she was originally with. Zuniga looks more like a suited factory owner here — and clearly expects Carmen as a perk of the job. When Don José brutally kills him, he dies dramatically, almost floating, and keeps coming back to haunt proceedings later on, like a Shakespearean ghost. Don José’s rage at Carmen’s choice of the shiny Toreador later on is equally vengeful.
In the background are black suited figures (evil presences, ominous presentiments of doom to come) and a ‘child’ dressed all in white — with a ball and then a doll. The ‘child’ tries to create an alternative narrative for these troubled characters — to suggest that there could have been peace and love, even a family, and innocence rather than blood and death. They also act as observers to the tumultuous events taking place on stage.
