The ballet ‘La Fille Mal Gardée’ (‘The Wayward Daughter) is currently being performed in the New Wimbledon Theatre, bringing a taste of young love and the light-hearted French countryside to the outskirts of London.

It tells the story of a young girl named Lise whose mother is desperate for her to marry the rich but idiotic Alain, even though she and Colas, another less wealthy young man, are in love and want to marry. 

This is a comic ballet in two acts, which was inspired by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin's painting ‘La réprimande/Une jeune fille querellée par sa mère’ (1789). Ballet Master Jean Dauberval was the original choreographer, and the original music was based on fifty-five popular French airs. The first performance was on the 1st July 1789 at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux in Bordeaux, France, and at this time was called ‘Le ballet de la paille, ou Il n'est qu'un pas du mal au bien’ (The Ballet of Straw, or There is Only One Step from Bad to Good).

However, there have been many revivals and different ballet companies in the two centuries since this first performance, and now at the New Wimbledon Theatre it is being performed by the Russian State Ballet, who are touring the UK with several other ballets including ‘Swan Lake’ and ‘Coppelia’.

‘La Fille Mal Gardée’ is well known for the comic mischievousness of the young lovers as well as the pantomime-like mother, especially during her clog sequence. An audience member who saw the evening performance on Thursday 9th February said that ‘the performance was light-hearted and entertaining, and there was lots of humorous interaction between characters’.    

So if you have never seen a ballet before or fancy something blithely romantic, New Wimbledon Theatre is the place to be!

by Samantha Perren, Rosebery School