Movement has never been as moving as this

It is always a special treat in Bath when a Matthew Bourne dance/ballet comes to town.

- By Nancy Connolly

The streets around the great Theatre Royal were thronged in the evening sunshine as people queued in anticipation of the acclaimed choreographer’s adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's dark novels.

And it did not disappoint.

The audience were captivated as the cast of 10 of Bourne’s most gifted dancers performed a spellbinding and intoxicating story of lonely and isolated people on the streets of 1930s London.

It is a place of despair and tragic love, the pub The Midnight Bell providing the only solace for this random group of disturbed people as they emerge from their dingy flats and boarding houses.

Every character has a story and Bourne’s dramatic choreography allows these incredible dancers the space to show their passion, despair and loneliness with very exaggerated but heart-rending movement.

Limbs are dramatically intertwined, movement is perfectly timed and the dance is magical and dream-like at times.

As an audience member you feel intoxicated by the movement and the stories told without words, it is a real experience and it celebrates the power of non-verbal storytelling only Bourne and his team can do in a thoroughly modern and contemporary way.

You feel the characters’ pain as they fall, mostly drunk, into despair and longing.