British choreographer Matthew Bourne shot to fame in 1995 with his smash-hit production of Swan Lake which controversially replaced the traditional female corps de ballet with a menacing male ensemble.

He returns to the music of Tchaikovsky for his latest re-imagining of a ballet classic, Sleeping Beauty, which comes to the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury this week following a record-breaking season at London’s Sadlers Wells.

The timeless fairy tale about a young girl cursed to sleep for 100 years was turned into a legendary ballet by Tchaikovsky and choreographer Marius Petipa in 1890.

Bourne’s haunting new production takes this date as a starting point, setting the christening of Aurora, the story’s heroine, in the year of the ballet’s first performance.

As Aurora grows into a woman, it moves forwards in time to the more rigid, uptight Edwardian era, then years later, awakening from her century-long slumber, Aurora finds herself in the modern day; a world more mysterious and wonderful than any fairy story!

Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty is at the Marlowe until Saturday, May 18, with performances at 7.30pm every night, and at 2.30pm on Thursday and Saturday.

Tickets from £14.50. Call 01227 787787.

To read a review of the production, click here