"My company is known for being funny as well as moving. You get a bit of everything in these shows. I think people know they're going to have a surprising experience"

Matthew Bourne frames his artistic identity around a deliberately double-edged promise: laughter and feeling, irreverence and sincerity. “Funny as well as moving” signals a choreography of contrasts, where comedy is not a garnish but a structural device that opens the audience to deeper currents of emotion. Laughter lowers defenses; when tenderness or tragedy arrives, it lands more truthfully. That tonal hybridity makes the work approachable without diluting its emotional rigor.

“A bit of everything” points to an eclectic dramaturgy, dance-theatre that blends narrative clarity, character study, visual wit, and cinematic pacing. The stagecraft is engineered for variety: swift tonal pivots, visual gags set against lyrical duets, familiar stories reframed through unexpected casting, period shifts, or subversive musical choices. Variety here is curation rather than chaos; the alternation of light and shade becomes the rhythm of the evening.

“I think people know they’re going to have a surprising experience” captures the paradox of Bourne’s brand: predictably unpredictable. Audiences arrive with trust that the work will confound habits, through a bold scenic reveal, a comedic beat that conceals a sting, or a humanizing detail that reorients a canonical tale. Surprise is not a gimmick but a method for renewing empathy, making classics feel newly lived-in and contemporary themes feel playfully accessible.

Embedded in this stance is a democratic ethos. Humor invites newcomers who might fear the opacity of dance; narrative anchors keep the work legible; emotional stakes reward seasoned viewers. The company’s reputation is thus a social contract: come for delight, stay for resonance. By balancing craft and mischief, precise choreography, character-driven storytelling, vivid design, Bourne turns the theatre into a space where audiences can be disarmed and then moved. The promise is simple and rare: to be entertained and changed in the same evening, to laugh and then feel the echo of that laughter deepen into something lasting.