“I was like, absolutely, yes,” says Stephen Murray, an Irish-born dancer who reflects on the moment he accepted the role of Edward Scissorhands in Matthew Bourne’s dance adaptation of the original Tim Burton film.
With the show arriving in Salford tomorrow for five nights, Stephen opens up about preparing for the role and what it has taken to put such an iconic show together.
Cast in the complex leading role that is Edward Scissorhands is Stephen Murray, who began working with Matthew Bourne almost a decade ago. “There’s only been four Edwards in all the years. I’m the fifth, so I feel very lucky and privileged to be in that small group of people who have played Edward,” he says about his recent casting in the lead role.
Murray described that it was during his time playing the lead role of Leo in Bourne’s Gothic adaptation of Sleeping Beauty when Bourne asked him to play Edward.
This dance production is an adaptation of Tim Burton’s original film, released in 1990. The film told the story of a laboratory-built man whose inventor passed away before he had completed building Edward, leaving him with Scissors for hands. Edward, left alone by the death of his inventor, then must face society as a freaky-looking man with a kind, tender soul. The rest of the movie depicts a story that centres around the moral idea of “don’t judge a book by its cover.”
Getting into the role of such a complex and unique character was not all smooth sailing for Murray. “I found it tough in the beginning,” he said as he began to talk about the challenges he faced.
“Edward has no social skills in the beginning. He has never been around people, so your face must be blank, which means when everyone is coming up and acting with you, but you can’t react, and that’s hard.
“I’ve learned how vulnerable the character actually is.”
While learning to embody such a character, Murray said he had been looking for guidance from previous actors who had played Edward.
In the original Tim Burton film, Edward Scissorhands was brought to life by Johnny Depp. Murray explains: “Johnny Depp said he watched loads of Charlie Chaplin videos for inspiration on the walk, so I have watched a lot of them.”
However, the dancer says that he doesn’t plan on completely replicating others’ interpretation of the character. “There are new sections in this production so you can bring a lot of yourself to the role. It’s amazing,” Murray adds.
Stephen’s journey began back in Dublin when Murray’s school took him to see Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, an iconic production which first premiered in 1995 and shook the dance world after turning traditions upside down by replacing the original performance of ballerina swans in tutus with men in feathered pantaloons.
“I turned around at the end, and I was like, I want to be in that.”
From then, Murray went on to train at the Irish National Youth Ballet Company, Westside Performing Arts Dublin.
“A few years later, I was in London, in my third year of Central School Ballet, and Matthew just came in one day,” Murray adds.
Bourne’s dance production company, New Adventures, founded in 2001, was on the hunt for apprentices to take part in their upcoming production of ‘Red Shoes’ in 2016, Stephen’s eyes lit up as he reminisced: “I got picked”.
Murray made his mark on New Adventures, saying that after his time as an apprentice, Bourne “asked (him) back to the company to be in Cinderella” and he has been there ever since.
As the production begins its four-month-long UK tour, Murray talks about how the cast and crew keep up their energy and care for themselves: “You’ve got to eat well because we don’t have much time,” he confessed: “It takes 40 minutes just to put the suit on.”
“We do four weeks of rehearsals in the studio; then we’re on stage.” But even with all that rehearsal: “The show is always changing and evolving. It’s never the same show twice.”
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