The Midnight Bell – Theatre Royal Nottingham
Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures company returns to Nottingham with The Midnight Bell. Bourne is celebrated for his narrative-driven choreography, blending ballet, contemporary, and musical theatre with humour, theatricality, and visual flair. His productions are known for their accessibility, transforming classic stories into richly entertaining and emotionally resonant dance theatre. The Midnight Bell is no exception. The novels of Patrick Hamilton are the source material this time. The tales of 1930s Soho and Fitzrovia capture the lives of working men and women gathering nightly in the pubs of London.
At the centre is the pub itself: The Midnight Bell, a refuge and stage for a ragtag group of lonely souls. Here, regulars and employees act out bittersweet dramas of longing, betrayal, and fleeting redemption. Bourne uses six interwoven storylines to explore themes of desire, repression, and isolation, each rendered through expressive choreography rather than words.
Lez Brotherston’s set and costume design evoke a fog-bound, sepia-toned London under a golden haze, conjuring smoke-filled bars and rain-slicked streets. The attention to detail is exquisite, from the pub’s worn fixtures to the period costumes that root us in the 1930s. The score, drawn from Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and the Gershwins, is cleverly integrated, with characters miming to the lyrics in a way that recalls Dennis Potter’s The Singing Detective. This technique brings both wit and poignancy, underscoring the characters’ emotional truths.
The cast deliver superb performances. Michela Meazza stands out as the lonely spinster Miss Roach, whose cruel treatment at the hands of Glenn Graham’s slick Ernest Ralph Gorse is painfully moving. Her eventual moment of triumph offers a welcome flicker of comic relief amid the gloom. Another highlight is the tender, coded relationship between Albert (Liam Mower) and Frank (Andy Monaghan). Their tentative, physically restrained duets slowly build into something more open and expressive, capturing both the fear and the exhilaration of forbidden love in that era.
Jenny Maple gives heart to the tragic figure of the young prostitute, caught in a cycle she cannot escape, while Dominic North’s Bob longs to save her. Cordelia Braithwaite is mesmerising as Netta Longdon, the out-of-work actress who becomes the obsession of Danny Reubens’ George Harvey Bone, a troubled romantic whose schizophrenia leads him into violent delusion. These characters never feel like caricatures; their inner lives are conveyed through dance with nuance and compassion.
It is easy to see why The Midnight Bell premiered to great acclaim, receiving five nominations at the 2022 National Dance Awards. Bourne won Best Modern Choreography, while Meazza was recognised for her outstanding performance – honours that feel entirely deserved.
Yet for all its brilliance, the production does lean heavily into despair. Bourne has acknowledged that the work was shaped during the pandemic, when isolation and disconnection were universal experiences. That sense permeates the piece, giving it real emotional weight, but also a relentlessness that can feel overwhelming. Each story ends in disappointment or heartbreak, with little room for hope. Even the relationship between Frank and Albert, one of the few moments of connection, feels tinged with melancholy rather than joy.
This darkness is both a strength and a limitation. It reflects Hamilton’s world faithfully and resonates with our own recent past, but at times I longed for greater contrast – just one storyline with a redemptive ending, one spark of unclouded happiness to balance the shadows. Bourne is a master at weaving humour and poignancy together, and while flashes of comedy surface here, the overall mood remains unremittingly bleak.
That said, The Midnight Bell is still a remarkable achievement – stylish, atmospheric, and danced with extraordinary precision and passion. It’s dance theatre that challenges, unsettles, and lingers long after the curtain falls. If you relish high-quality choreography that dares to confront difficult emotions, this production is unmissable. The characters may be lost, but their stories will stay with you.
The Midnight Bell runs at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal until 6th September.
Photos credit: Johan Persson
