Coppelia lands in ’50s US mid-west

IF THERE is one thing of which Anne Maher, director of Ballet Ireland, is certain, it is that her chosen genre cannot hope to survive in a time warp, preserved waxily under a glass dome somewhere around the 1880s.

It needs to reinvent itself, resonate with today’s audiences if it is to succeed.

Well, that’s certainly true of a new production of Coppelia, now on tour. Instead of old-world central Europe, this version is set in America’s mid-west of the 1950s, when women’s lib is starting to emerge and, in direct opposition, the male ideal of the perfect domestic goddess is being strongly enforced.