Review: Midnight Express, Peter Schaufuss Ballet

After reading some of the reviews I wasn’t sure whether this would be worth going to. However, it was clear that most of the critics hated the disco-dancing guards at the back of the stage who I thought were great, contrasting with and thereby highlighting the brutality of the violence at the front of the stage. There has also been much criticism of the soundtrack which combines disco with Mozart. Oddly, the first track that came up on my iPhone on the way there was DM Ashura vs W.A.Mozart – Dies Irae, so I had no problem with the combination! However, it was clunkily put together and would have been better mixed by a skilled DJ such as Fatboy Slim. Faults aside, I enjoyed the performance and felt it had potential to be a great work. The dancing, particularly by Johan Christensen as Billy Hayes, was excellent and the set was fantastic. There was also a lovely duet between Christensen and Wayne Eagling playing his father. Wayne Sleep made a short appearance in Schaufuss’s Romeo and Juliet a couple of years ago – does he have a thing about Waynes?

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