London – In the heart of Angel, under the domed intimacy of Sadler’s Wells, Matthew Bourne’s The Midnight Bell returned to London with a haunting intensity that rippled through the audience from curtain rise to final breath. Inspired by the grim poetry of Patrick Hamilton’s 1930s Soho, this production weaves together a tangle of desperate hearts in a pub drenched in longing, disillusion, and the ache of fleeting connection.
Bourne’s direction continues to be masterfully evocative — wordless storytelling made rich through nuance, timing, and uncanny emotional truth. The ensemble, drawn from New Adventures’ most seasoned dancers, moved with a familiarity of pain and joy that only years of shared language can produce. This was not merely dance. It was embodiment — of trauma, of lust, of vanished youth — rendered in dimly lit alleyways and pub corners.
Michela Meazza’s award-winning return was marked by her characteristic restraint and piercing presence. Watching her move through a memory, or freeze in one, is like watching time collapse. Liam Mower’s performance was a standout — delicate, volatile, aching — drawing audible gasps during the final pas de deux. The ensemble worked as one pulsating, breathing entity, with not a gesture wasted.
Lez Brotherston’s sets remain a triumph: claustrophobic and dreamlike, the flickering neon signs and fogbound streets evoked not just a time, but a trapped state of being. The score by Terry Davies remains both nostalgic and nerve-pricking — a score that sips you slowly into your own half-remembered heartbreaks.
At Sadler’s Wells, The Midnight Bell is not just a show. It’s an evening that leaves its bruises — beautifully, truthfully — as only Matthew Bourne’s work can.
🗓️ Remaining 2025 UK Tour Dates
TUESDAY 24 – SATURDAY 28 JUNE 2025
Curve Theatre, Leicester
curveonline.co.uk
TUESDAY 1 – SATURDAY 5 JULY 2025
The Lowry, Salford
thelowry.com
TUESDAY 8 – SATURDAY 12 JULY 2025
Newcastle Theatre Royal
theatreroyal.co.uk
TUESDAY 15 – SATURDAY 19 JULY 2025
Royal and Derngate, Northampton
royalandderngate.co.uk
TUESDAY 22 – SATURDAY 26 JULY 2025
Theatre Royal, Plymouth
theatreroyal.com
WEDNESDAY 30 JULY – SATURDAY 2 AUGUST 2025
Theatre Royal, Brighton
atgtickets.com
TUESDAY 2 – SATURDAY 6 SEPTEMBER 2025
Theatre Royal, Nottingham
trch.co.uk
TUESDAY 9 – SATURDAY 13 SEPTEMBER 2025
Norwich Theatre Royal
norwichtheatre.org
TUESDAY 16 – SATURDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 2025
Liverpool Playhouse
everymanplayhouse.com
TUESDAY 23 – SATURDAY 27 SEPTEMBER 2025
Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield
sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
TUESDAY 30 SEPTEMBER – SATURDAY 4 OCTOBER 2025
Alhambra Theatre, Bradford
bradford-theatres.co.uk