Jack Nicholson as Carmen, anyone? Matthew Bourne, the man famous for those male swans, has been similarly bold in his dance rewrite of Bizet's operatic tragedy about sexual obsession. Set in the scorching trailer-trash America of The Postman Always Rings Twice (and more than a little inspired by the Bob Rafelson movie), The Car Man turns the fatally attractive gipsy into a man with takeaway morals who comes to work in a garage. Emotional anarchy and much rumpy-pumpy ensues (in various gender combinations), capped with violent death. Under the grunts and pawings of the choreography, there's a more resonant tragedy about what it's like being the only gay in the village in a pitilessly hetero USA. Rodion Shchedrin's headbangingly jazzy version of Bizet's music is another attraction here. 
Ismene Brown
The Car Man, Sadler's Wells,
from July 11
FIRST POSTED JULY 6, 2007
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