Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man – Review – Sheffield Lyceum
By Clare Jenkins, July 2026
‘Fasten your seat-belts’, Bette Davis memorably warned in All About Eve. ‘It’s going to be a bumpy night…’
So it proves with Matthew Bourne’s disturbingly magnificent dance adaptation of Bizet’s opera Carmen, relocated from 19th Century Spanish cigarette factory to 1950s American Midwest garage-cum-greasy-spoon-diner.
As the audience take their seats at Sheffield’s Lyceum Theatre, it’s all action onstage. Smoke swirls around a group of oil-stained, denim-clad mechanics strutting and rutting around the stage. While they chuck tyres around and rev up their automobile engines, over at Dino’s Diner the womenfolk pout and preen in pretty 50s frocks.
“Powerful atmosphere”
At the bar, Dino’s bored wife, Lana, flirts with all and sundry while standing next to a Man Wanted sign. Suddenly, into their midst strolls Luca, a charismatic drifter with a scar on his cheek, a tattoo on his neck, bringing silence into what had been cacophonous noise. Cue a chain reaction of desire, illicit affairs and violent murder.
The Car Man, first staged 25 years ago, was revived in 2022 and is now on its first major tour. As is their style, Bourne and his New Adventures company of dancers, together with masterly set designer Lez Brotherston and lighting director Chris Davey, create a powerful atmosphere from the beginning.
Against a backdrop of smouldering red sunset, sweltering heat, faded Coca Cola signs, nicotine, long shadows and the harsh glare of workshop lights, the edginess and hint of danger is palpable.
And, as so often with Bourne’s productions, there’s more than a hint of film noir throughout. The storyline – dissatisfied wife falls for passing stranger, with fatal consequences – owes more than a little to The Postman Always Rings Twice and Double Indemnity with its steamy couplings and acts of betrayal. But there’s also a hint of It’s a Wonderful Life in the way the inhabitants of the ironically-named small town of Harmony plummet from close-knit community into full-on physical and sexual brutality.
“Commitment in every glance”
Harrison Dowzell’s anti-hero Luca is magnetic, whether slouching silently in a corner or dominating the stage with his gravity-defying leaps and bounds. There’s potent sexual chemistry between him and Cordelia Braithwaite’s sultry Lana – as there is between him and Angelo (Leonardo McCorkindale), the sensitive (and, as it turns out, bisexual) mechanic persecuted by his more macho colleagues. In contrast, Angelo’s duets with Kurumi Kamayachi’s waitress bring some touching relief to all the intense physicality, which at times resembles a series of strenuous, competitive gym workouts.
The entire company of dancers work superbly together, demonstrating commitment in every glance, every movement, like a pelvis-gyrating, thigh-slapping Greek chorus. Their athletic partnering can segue into moments of arresting stillness as they ebb and flow seamlessly around each other, whether demonstrating boredom, anger, limb-tangling lust or hoedown jauntiness.
Composer Terry Davies’ adaptation of Rodion Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite, a dazzling reworking of Bizet, gives the production a relentless pulse at moments of tension or crisis, adding to the intense, highly physical storytelling.
“Menacing figures”
There are some curious moments: notably the start of the second act, where Luca and Lana, he in full cowboy gear, she in trashy glitter-dress, watch a trio of French mime artists in a night club, surrounded by menacing figures in black leather, silver chains and shades.
The second act as a whole is darker, with Angelo now in a grim grey jailhouse, falsely accused of the murder of Dino (Danny Reubens). Sexually assaulted by the prison guard in front of fellow prisoners acting like animals in cages, he becomes a figure as bloodied and scarred as everyone else.
There are also some moments of humour – as when Luca emerges from Lana’s bedroom wearing just his underwear and a frilly peach-coloured chiffon peignoir. And a Full Monty-style shower scene – with pecs a-plenty and brief full-frontal nudity – drew admiring laughter from the first night audience. But the overall impact is of unapologetic melodrama and of a glimpse of the tragedy that can happen when visceral forces are unleashed.
Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man is at Sheffield Lyceum until Saturday 25th July then touring to the end of the year
images: Johan Persson
Clare is a journalist, former BBC Radio broadcaster and co-founder of the independent radio production company Pennine Productions. She and her national newspaper travel writer husband Stephen McClarence have been regular visitors to India for different work commissions.
Two years ago, their book, Teatime at Peggy’s: A Glimpse of Anglo-India, was published by Bradt: https://www.bradtguides.com/product/teatime-at-peggys/, and is now in its 2nd edition. They are currently working on a sequel.
Clare’s also written a number of books based on personal testimony, and is currently compiling an oral history of Sheffield Newspapers for Sheffield Archives and the British Library.
