Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man Turns Carmen Into a Shirtless, Sweat-Soaked Noir Thriller at Sadler’s Wells

The Car Man | Sadler’s Wells Theatre until 29 August 2026

Hate, jealousy, betrayal and a great deal of flesh, Matthew Bourne’s dance thriller earns every one of its five stars.

Matthew Bourne is one of the most celebrated names in British dance theatre, the director and choreographer behind era-defining reinventions of Swan Lake, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. The Car Man is one of his boldest works, first created in 2000, a retelling of Bizet’s Carmen, reworked as a dance thriller steeped in the style of American film noir. It has been revived many times since, and Matthew Bourne is back at Sadler’s Wells with it now, before the production heads out on tour, and it is, quite simply, one of the most thrilling pieces of dance theatre you will see this year.

Let’s deal with the obvious question first: Is it a musical? Is it a dance show? Neither, and both. It’s dance theatre, with no dialogue and only the odd bit of vocalizing, but not a word spoken. And yet, you will follow every twist without the slightest difficulty; you always know who is who and what is what. He calls it a dance thriller, and that is precisely what it is, I’ve never sat through a dance piece on the edge of my seat.

The score is the music of Carmen, Bizet, of course, though developed here from the ballet rather than the opera. It’s unique in Bourne’s work in one respect: the ballet score only covers about half the running time, so he worked with Terry Davies to develop and extend it in step with the story.

The story itself is all hate, jealousy, and betrayal, set in a greasy 1950s garage diner in the fictional and ironically titled town of Harmony, where a stranger arrives and becomes entangled with more than one resident, regardless of gender.

Tragedy, murder, prison, and revenge duly follow. It put me in mind of the film noir The Postman Always Rings Twice. There were two versions: firstly, the 1946 version with Lana Turner and John Garfield, and then the 1981 remake starring Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange.

I nicknamed it, at various points, “Does the Postman Pirouette Twice?” and then, more accurately, “Does the Postman Swing Both Ways Twice?” There’s a great deal of shenanigans going on in Harmony.

You won’t necessarily get the same lead dancers every performance, either, and that doesn’t matter here, this is a hugely physical, athletic, masculine piece of dancing with impressive leaps and thrills. I saw Ashley Shaw as Lana and Will Bozier as Luca, who were both brilliant, and once you see the physicality involved, you’ll understand exactly why they’re not doing eight shows a week. Regardless of who you see, you are going to see some top-draw dancing and performers!

It was originally billed as an “autoerotic thriller”, I do love that pun, and there is, fair warning, a fair amount of flesh on display. So, if you’re one of those people who says, “I don’t want to see a ballet,” go and see this. It might just change your mind.

Go and see it, whichever cast you catch. EyeOnLondon rarely hands out five stars this easily.

For more London arts and culture, visit EyeOnLondon at eye-on-london.com.

[Image credits: Johan Persson]

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