Interview: Matthew Bourne, Lord of the Flies producer

WHEN you're Britain's best-known choreographer, have toured the world, won awards on Broadway and played the Edinburgh International Festival, it's fair to say your reputation is hard won. Yet when Matthew Bourne's latest production, Lord Of The Flies, opens in Glasgow next week, more than 50 per cent of the cast will be amateurs, most of whom have never been on stage in their lives before.

But what sounds like theatrical suicide is, in fact, the culmination of an inspirational new project. Over the past year, Bourne's New Adventures company has been running workshops for boys and young men in Glasgow and West Dunbartonshire. From hundreds of participants, just 15 have been chosen to perform in this ambitious reworking of William Golding's novel, and as far as Bourne is concerned, it's all about them, not him.

"This piece isn't about my reputation," he says. "For me it's about giving these guys a great experience, not about adding another piece to the list of things we've done. It will always remain a project that, if we do it again, will happen in a similar way in another city with other young people. Hopefully that's the purpose of it."

Bourne was first approached about the project two years ago, by Glasgow Theatres' chief executive, Richard Wingate. Knowing that productions such as Bourne's all-male Swan Lake have had a positive impact on encouraging boys to dance, New Adventures seemed the perfect company to collaborate with. Held in secondary schools, community groups and colleges, the workshops were inevitably received with varying degrees of open-mindedness.

"When the workshops took place, there were a lot of kids who were influenced by peer pressure," says Bourne. "That was the challenge of those early stages of the project. You do your best to engage them, but only a fraction of them will eventually come through and be strong enough to override that peer pressure. Now the guys we've got are the ones who really want to do it, and hopefully it will be something that will spread and other kids who come to see it will want to be involved, too."

Like most dance companies, New Adventures is no stranger to education work. What is unique about Lord Of The Flies, however, is that the local boys involved will be performing to a brand new score by composer Terry Davies, against a backdrop designed by Lez Brotherston, both award-winning professionals. Not to mention the eight professional dancers heading the cast.

"It's very rare that you get the chance to do something on this scale," says Bourne, "which is essentially a brand new production, with all the team that would normally work on one of our shows, but incorporating local young people – nothing of that sort has ever been put to me before. But one of the reasons we have called upon the most experienced people to do the production, is that we want it to be as good as the shows we normally do, in terms of the lighting and music, the way it looks."

Funded by Creative Scotland, though the Big Lottery's Inspire fund, the project had three remits – education workshops, the making of a short film and a final stage production. What the focus of the film and show should be, however, was up to Bourne, and with 2011 marking the centenary of William Golding's birth, it seemed the perfect choice.

"Because our company is known for adaptations from different mediums, be it a ballet, film or book, I thought it was important to continue that tradition and have a title that was familiar," explains Bourne. "And I picked Lord Of The Flies for obvious reasons – because it's an all-male piece, and I thought it would be something that young people could relate to, the idea of rivalry and gangs, the aspect of bullying – things that they could identify with in their own lives a bit."

Bourne has transferred the action from a deserted island to an abandoned theatre, where a group of boys find themselves alone without any teacher or parental supervision. As with the novel, things slowly escalate in the form of disturbing rituals and violent outbreaks.

Throughout rehearsals, the boys have been encouraged to contribute to the choreographic process, allowing them to bring some of their own personality to the piece. "It's exciting but scary," says Bourne, "and has been right from the beginning. But I'm just hoping that we give them an experience that they'll never forget."

• Lord Of The Flies is at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Wednesday until Saturday, 7.30pm, with matinees Thursday and Saturday, 2.30pm www.new-adventures.net/rebourne/lord_of_the_flies

This article was first published in Scotland On Sunday, 27 February, 2011