Well the first thing you should know about “Billy Elliot” is that it’s more of a play that has integrated songs and dance to make a spectacular whole theater piece. All the elements of a musical are there, but each seems to not only complement, but also enhance and expand on the other. In scope “Billy Elliot is very much like Fellini’s “Amarcord” or Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander” where a whole youthful world is remembered and embroidered on by great artists. That is same way “Billy Elliot” is to me. It also weaves a myriad of themes so perfectly, that as a play I had to reach back to “Angles in America” to find anything as comparable. As for musical theater, I can only think of the great “Carousel” where music and dance are as well entwined.
The next thing to know is that “Billy Elliot” is a very adult play. What I mean by that is, despite having a young Billy at the center, there is lack of romanticizing or softening of his world. All the adults and children are presented as real human beings with the virtues and faults we all possess. It’s more “Great Expectations’ than “David Copperfield”. There is a clear-eyed lack of judgmental quality that permeates throughout. This also means that the language is rough-hewn, coarse and common, but true to the actual location and circumstances of the mining community in northern England.
It is also clear from the get-go that the creators of “Billy Elliot” not only know the background and lives of these people, but also this is their own story or some variation thereof, that is being told. So much of the attitudes, feelings and emotions of these characters just sound real. By the end of the play, even the minor characters seem to have a life and story that was included.
Based on the 1995 film, “Billy Elliot” tells the story of a motherless boy, growing up in the harsh world of a fading mining town, who almost accidentally discovers not only an aptitude for, but a love of ballet. (Or ‘ballie’ as they pronounce it) Of course this goes against the standard norms that are prevalent all over the western world. Billy should be practicing boxing or some other manly sport. Dancing is for girls or ‘poofs’! Importantly, Billy is never presented as lonely or an outcast, but just a kid looking to find something that actually interests him which, much to his own surprise, is ballet. All this is presented against the turbulent background of Thatcherite England where a miner’s strike has been going on for a year due to the ‘Iron Lady’ trying to break the powerful labor unions in an effort to privatize industry. (To really understand the reasons for the depth of anger and fury this action caused, just read A.J. Cronin’s “The Citadel” or Richard Llewellyn’s “How Green Was My Valley”, or at least the movie versions, to learn how exploited the people and the land were by private companies.)
Once Billy has embraced his passion for dance, with a great assist from his fey best friend Michael, his struggle then becomes between not just his own world, but with a more universal one, that of fathers and sons. In fact, I think that the other major story in “Billy Elliot” is of his father’s acceptance of his son’s aspiration to dance and the sacrifices that entails. Not only must Frank Elliot find the money to send Billy to London for an audition at the Royal Ballet School, but also he has to go against the community and fellow strikers that he lives with. To its great credit, the play gives Frank the time to express the turmoil and toll his decisions take.
“Billy Elliot” is so much about people who look to their past for the sense of who they are, but are also willing to acknowledge that change is coming. Two major dance pieces illuminate this theme; in the first act, Billy explodes with frustration at the forces that he sees as trapping him in a life that he no longer wants. No words can express his pent up emotions and desires so he does the only thing he can do, which is dance. It’s an angry and wild ride filled with steps that he can only improvise since his dance vocabulary is so limited and his inner turmoil so great.
In the second act, Billy sees his own future as a dancer and the steps are classical and glorious. Set to Peter Tchaikovsky’s most romantic music, Billy, youth and adult, do a pas de deux that is so visually stunning and moving that it literally takes ones breath away. Ending on a note of defiance, Billy crosses over from boy to young manhood and dares his own father to stop him from growing up. This is quite the coup de theatre!
Finally in the climatic dance “Electricity”, Billy realizes and admits what he is capable of doing and he is able to leave the only world he knows behind. His mother is dead and his town and its way of life are dying. But they will not be forgotten. Billy Elliot has great hope for the future and so do we.
No comments:
Post a Comment