La Fille Mal Gardée

The Russian State Ballet of Siberia performs one of the oldest surviving ballets in the rep, 'La Fille Mal Gardée'. London audiences will know Kenneth MacMillan's version of the ballet, but this one is based on Alexander Gorsky's choreography. The story is the same, though, about a country girl in love with a flirty farm lad, and the prissy boy her monstrous mother wants to match her up with instead. It's a gentle pastoral farce really, and It needs to be performed with charm, wit and a feather-light touch in order to be something more than twee. Whether this small Siberian company are up to it, we'll have to wait and see.