Our dance critic David Bellan talked to the hugely successful creator Matthew Bourne about his version of Edward Scissorhands

Edward Scissorhands is the story of a young man doomed to be eternally an outsider, because his scientist creator has left him with huge scissors for hands.

His arrival in a pretty American suburb causes many different reactions, but a danger to others and to himself it's hard to find acceptance. Johnny Depp brought Edward to life in Tim Burton's marvellous 1990 film, which became an instant classic. Trying to put this on the stage with dancers 15 years later must have seemed a risky project, and I asked Matthew Bourne what made him want to take that risk.

"I think it was because Danny Elfman's music for the film was so theatrical; very magical music, very romantic, very strange. And the other thing of course was the character of Edward. He's seemingly something from a Grimm's fairy story, but when you look deeper, he's a universal character the scissor-hands are just a metaphor for being different.

"It's the outsider quality that interests me, and I felt this was someone the audience could connect with. Beyond that there's a secondary message in the romantic love story between him and Kim, whose family take him in. Her lesson is to look within someone, because, initially, she's repelled by him, and she has this prize catch of a boyfriend who looks good but isn't a very nice guy."

It took many years to get permission from Tim Burton to make a dancing version of Edward Scissorhands, but eventually he agreed, provided that Bourne remained true to his own ideas, rather than just trying to recreate the film.

"I worked with Caroline Thompson, who wrote the original story and the screenplay, and we tried to find ways of making it theatrical, ways of making it dance trying to find images from the film that you want, but trying to tell it in a way that works without words.

"Also, I wanted people to know how Edward came to be like that, so I put a prologue in, and the end is different too. What happens to him is more poetic, and it leaves a question mark in the air. If you're doing a piece without words, that's dance as well, you can be a bit more non-specific, which leaves the audience to think a little bit more, so it has changed quite considerably."

But films are made in tiny sections. Wasn't it tempting fate to put a dancer with 12-in blades for fingers on to a crowded stage for an hour and a half ?

"They look more dangerous than they are. They're plastic blades on a leather glove, but they can still do some damage if the dancer isn't careful. The other dancers are very wary, and the blades add a foot to the length of each arm. So Edward does take a lot of space, and if you're dancing with him you've just got to keep out of the way.

"One or two people have got hit, and the girls who dance with him wore swimming goggles during rehearsals. The gloves make him quite vulnerable. It's a problem to have this weight on your hands for the whole show, and they've got to be able to do everything, not like in a film, where you can take one shot and then set them up to do something different.

"Also, if the dancer has an itch, he can't scratch. He can't go to the toilet, because he's strapped into the whole thing. He can't have a drink unless someone feeds it to him, and there are a lot of quick changes because he wears costumes on top of costumes. So actually it's good for the part because it makes him isolated, and at the same time reliant on other people, just like the character."

Does having these hands limit what sort of dancing he can do?

"Yes it does, because they're naturally restricting, and that's almost the point. He can't do everything and he's dangerous, that's his tragedy. But I always find that, in choreography, to have limitations is good, because it gives you somewhere to start and makes you try to think of new things. There's nothing worse than here's a boy, here's a girl, make a love duet', it's too vague."

Edward Scissorhands is typical of Bourne in that it blends humour with pathos in a highly entertaining story. I wondered whether the finished result had surprised him in any way.

"I'm surprised at how gentle it is. It's got funny moments and touching moments, but I wasn't expecting the romantic sweetness it has."

Tim Burton came to the premiere, what did he think of it?

"He said it was a bit surreal to suddenly see his own work re-interpreted in dance, but I think he was really thrilled. It was so important to us that he gave it his seal of approval; that was the last hurdle in many ways. If he'd left in a huff it would have been awful."

  • Edward Scissorhands opens at the Wycombe Swan on Tuesday, April 25, and at Milton Keynes Theatre on May 9.