French author Colette’s 1920 novel Chéri has been a film starring Michelle Pfeiffer and a ballet by Peter Darrell. It now comes to us in a beautifully gauged piece of dance theatre by American choreographer/director Martha Clarke.
Veteran ballerina Alessandra Ferri plays Léa, the older lover of pleasure-seeking young Chéri (American Ballet Theatre principal Herman Cornejo, who at 34 has a decade on his character). Francesca Annis plays his mother, narrating their ardent affair, which is felled by Chéri’s marriage to a younger woman.
Annis does not dance, and the dancers do not speak, and somehow this construction works perfectly. The plot is slim and the choreography simple, but the richness is in the detail: Ferri’s hands quivering as Cornejo pins her against the wall; the magnetism between their bodies; Annis’s carefully chosen words, with hints of judgment and jealousy; and the mood of romance and lost love conjured by pianist Sarah Rothenberg — one of the most poignant moments of all is just Ravel and a darkened stage. At only an hour, it’s a miniature gem.
Until October 4 (020 7304 4000, roh.org.uk)
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