The Prince is not gay

We (not the Royal Plural) went to the bell eh recently and saw the "all male" Swan Lake. (Actually there's lots of females in it. It's the swans that are all male.) One thing everyone who's seen it agrees on is that it is absolutely stunning. We have the DVD if anyone would like to come over and watch it. Regretably the DVD is no where near as good as the live performance. If you Google it you'll read all sorts of fatuous crap about it - like the Prince is gay blah blah blah. Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm here to give it to you straight. (For anyone reading this who doesn't know me, that was a joke.)

If you already know the story, bear with me while I give an outline of it to those who don’t. The first thing to say about it is that even in its pre-Bourne form there are at least two stories: the one with the happy ending and the real one. But for most of story both of them go something like this. A young prince is about to come of age and his mother tells him it is time to find a bride. He’s bothered by this and goes hunting with his mates. He becomes separated from them and is startled by a flock of swans that transform themselves into beautiful women. The most beautiful of them tells him that they are under a curse that can be broken only by a handsome young prince, not merely swearing unconditional love for her, but doing something to prove it. Our prince, of course, rises to the occasion. He will marry the beautiful woman and invites her to the palace ball the following night. She agrees but says she can’t attend until after midnight as she has her human form only between then and dawn. So the next night someone looking very much like her arrives at the ball, but it’s before midnight, and note that she’s all decked out in black! Warning bells should be going off in a smart prince’s head. But no, he publicly announces his engagement to Little Miss Gotcha-by-the-royal-assent, only to realise that he’s been tricked when he sees his real love looking through a window balling her eyes out. So in spite of the threats of the wicked father of his unwanted bride-to-be he dashes back to the lake, and here’s where the two versions of the story diverge. In the happy ending, his true love is about to return to her swan form – this time forever! – when he arrives to rescue her from the curse, and, of course, they live happily ever after – although, not as prince and princess, (because the wicked would be father in law has made sure the prince cannot return to his palace job) but as worthy folk of the forest. In the other version, he’s too late to prevent the metamorphosis of his love so he ends it there and then by jumping into the lake – which is precisely the kind of thing that would break the curse, so, yes, horror of horrors, he’s gone but she’s now permanently back in her human form. Mmmmmmmmmoving. The second ending is the European version of the story. It took the Americans to come up with the happy ending.

In Matthew Bourne’s version, the swans are all male, so, since the Prince falls in love with Boss Swan, does this mean that the Prince is …. um…. well, you know… gay? No. Not actually. Homosexual then? Not even that. Gosh! There’s a difference? Yes. Let’s get something straight here. Straight? Well, you know what I mean. Homosexual is an orientation. Gay is a lifestyle. The prince is clearly NOT gay. Ah, but is he a closet …. well, you know … queen? He may well be, but his sexuality is irrelevant because this version of the story is not about boy meets girl, or even boy meets boy, but the integration of the ego with the True Self. Having said that, I must admit that a literal interpretation of events on stage does allow for a boy meets boy version of the story. But that would be mere entertainment, and that indeed was precisely what early critics accused it of being. Entertainment it certainly is. But it’s much more. It’s ART! The real thing!! Let me explain. The awful truth is that the prince has grown up in a palace culture in which appearances matter more than reality. When on show things must conform to a rigid protocol. Behind the scenes anything goes. The Queen is an utter trollop who has become incapable of giving her son the intimacy he needs. The impact of this on his psyche is devastating and is manifest in the deeply inadequate relationship the Queen has with him. She wants an heir. He just wants his mummy – which, at fourteen, is fair enough. But she refuses be that for him, and he never gets over it. He develops an Oedipal complex which manifests initially in his choice of a girlfriend – a crass, but good natured, commoner who, by definition, can never be his consort: never replace his mother. Of course the prince gets into all sorts of trouble. In this version he doesn’t go hunting – well, not in the usual sense – he goes night clubbing in the red light district. Mmmmmmaybe he does go hunting after all. It is at the club that the Prince encounters life in the wild – the very antithesis of palace life. Lacking the social skills to fit in, he falls foul of the club patrons, which sets him up for an epiphany. Enter the swans!! He sees in his mind’s eye the truth of who he can be. The swans are the wild life (as distinct from wildlife) that underpins his existence, and their leader, The Swan (or Boss Swan), is the full realisation of being, experienced in human terms – which is why the Prince sees both Swan and Man simultaneously. In fact the swans and The Swan are aspects of his own being: archetypes of his untamed and fully realised or True Self. Though this inspires him – he dances solo to celebrate what he has grasped about his own potential – it also leaves him helpless – unable to become the truth that lies within him, because of the constraints of his royal status. His mother catches him in a moment of despair – self pity from her point of view – and berates him. He makes a desperate plea for her affection which she rebuffs, causing him to come on stronger and stronger until the horrifying denouement: the articulation of incestuous desire. The Queen tidies her gown – as though this incident could be as inconsequential as the dust she brushes off. The Prince, however has now seen the full measure of his own depravity. Suicide is the only option. He leaves a suicide note on a lamp post in a city park and is about to end it all in the lake when the apparition returns with the full force of corporeal reality. An astounding demonstration of being unfolds, and before long he’s in there partnering the Boss Swan in the dance of his life. And when the apparition vanishes it’s life the prince chooses. He rips up the suicide note and plants a celebratory kiss on an astonished park dweller. Back in the palace it’s the prince’s 21st birthday party. He’s busy trying to maintain the decorum of palace life, warning off the young military officers lining up for their moment with the Queen. All his effort pales to insignificance when the most astounding swashbuckler makes his entry. Dressed in black, he appears to be the very incarnation of the apparition in the park. He is unimpeded as he seduces all and appears to ignore the Prince, until suddenly he has the Prince in his thrall and utterly humiliates him. The prince is confused and importunate, mistakenly thinking that this seething hunk of flesh and blood really is the paragon of being that had so recently held him in his arms. Dismissed with contempt the prince gapes in disbelief as the Queen – his MOTHER! – succumbs to allure of this behemoth of machismo. Utterly humiliated, he brandishes a handgun, but his tutor follows suit, taking the opportunity to rid the palace of the embarrassing girl friend, making it look like a tragic accident, of course. The prince is overpowered and taken away by security guards. In an asylum/hospital his heart is torn out and he is lobotomised – symbolically, at least. Bereft of humanity the prince now awaits death. The apparition returns. The swans are menacingly curious. The prince is wretched. Boss Swan emerges from deep within the prince’s bed/ catafalque. His attempts to rescue the prince from despair trigger a frenzy of jealousy and rage among the other swans. Both the Boss Swan and the Prince lose their lives in this struggle, and when it’s all over, in comes the Queen who screams in grief, because all she sees is the corpse of her dead son. She cannot raise her sight high enough to see his apotheosis. In the mirror above the bed, Boss Swan cradles the young Prince in his arms. The Prince has attained the wholeness he was denied in his relationship with his mother.

Taken at face value the vicious attack of the swans could be about rejection of the outsider, echoing the Prince’s rejection by society at both ends – the night club and the palace. But such a literal interpretation is unsatisfactory in the light of everything that has gone before it. If The Swan is the Prince’s True Self then the frenzy that ends both of their lives is the internal struggle that the Prince was always going to have to endure to integrate his ego with his True Self. Is it the Prince dealing with his own homophobia? It could be, if he’s homosexual, but the question is not necessary, because the struggle for integration would be the same whether the prince is homosexual or not. The story in this production is not about sexuality, but psychological, emotional and spiritual integration. Boss Swan is the Prince’s True Self, the other swans are his roots in wild nature. They prevail, but only in physical reality. In prevailing they effect the integration of the Prince’s ego with his True Self, which is also their ultimate destiny: the full realisation of being.