Gentleman Jack, Northern Ballet
Rachael Gillespie (Ann Walker), Gemma Coutts (Anne Lister), George Liang (Christopher Rawson) and Alessandra Bramante (Mrs Rawson) in Gentleman Jack © Emily Nuttall
Anne Lister.
Unapologetic 19th-century Lesbian. Coalmine owner. Erotic Diarist. Icon for the modern age.
There was a lot of pressure on Northern Ballet and choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa (well known for narrative works based on the lives of women, including Coco Chanel and Frida Kahlo) when they announced that they would be the first major ballet company to create a narrative work based on the life of a lesbian. I say major because, while smaller companies such as Queer the Ballet in the States have been creating works based around queer narratives for a while, it’s only recently that larger companies, such as The Royal Ballet (albeit fleetingly in Wayne McGregor’s Woolf Works) and The Australian Ballet (with Christopher Wheeldon’s Oscar) have begun depicting LGBTQ+ relationships on stage.
To add to this, Anne Lister’s story has experienced a resurgence over the last decade after the acclaimed BBC TV show, also called Gentleman Jack, brought her story into modern pop culture. She was also a Yorkshire woman, residing in Shibden Hall near Halifax which is not far away from Northern Ballet HQ in Leeds, her story is one of pride to the heritage of the local area.
Needless to say, expectations were high.
Gemma Coutts (Anne Lister) and Saeka Shirai (Mariana Lawton) in Gentleman Jack. © Tristram Kenton
The work itself is split into two halves of around 40 minutes. To be fair to Lopez Ochoa, this isn’t a huge amount of time to dedicate to this remarkable story so the narrative is stripped back to the basics. We see Anne confidently negotiating and discussing mining with business men, her relationship with the married Mariana Lawton (Saeka Shirai) break down, and her meet-cute to eventual ‘marriage’ with Ann Walker. Some minor flirtations and an orgy in Paris are added for good measure, plus lots and lots of diary writing (without which we would know nothing about Anne, who wrote over 5 million words in her lifetime).
Despite its seeming simplicity, the first half sped through and flitted between the two main narratives: Anne the girlboss taking on the patriarchy and Anne’s affair with Mariana. With little joining the two stories, the act struggled to find flow, feeling bitty and disjointed as a result. Interestingly, for a queer woman and business woman in late Georgian Britain, she didn’t seem to face many issues. Male backlash to her business acumen wasn’t focussed on for long enough, and her only major romantic setback was her lover going back to her husband. At the end of Act 1, Anne is attacked by miners who found her too different, (one of the only emotionally low moments of the ballet and a beautifully danced one at that) but overall it all felt a little too easy for Anne. She didn’t seem to face as much rejection or ridicule as I expected. She was also incredibly confident and so didn’t go on much of a personal journey. It felt like we needed to go deeper into her character, peel back a few more layers of the onion, as it felt very top level. As a result, there wasn’t an obvious narrative building up before us and it was hard to back Anne on whatever journey she was supposed to be embarking on.
Pacing wasn’t the only issue at play here.
For a woman renowned for writing about her sexual encounters in explicit detail, her romantic duet with Mariana lacked chemistry, let alone lust or passion. It was danced beautifully, with the work’s signature swishing lyrical choreography and high legs, but it was more placed than felt.
This lack of feeling wasn’t helped by opting to use an atmospheric score (composed by Peter Salem). It struggled to enhance what should have been an emotional rollercoaster of a narrative, leaving the act feeling flat. Furthermore, the equally minimalistic set design struggled to immerse me in Anne’s world. The main scene setting was done through pillars with videos showing Anne’s various locations. A clever gimmick (placed around a walking pad for Anne to ‘travel’ on), they were a tad small and I would have struggled to recognise the streets of Paris in Act 2 had I not read ahead.
Talking of, the ballet improved significantly in the second half.
Northern Ballet dancers in Gentleman Jack. © Emily Nuttall
With the characters introduced and the mining all but abandoned, it focussed in on her relationship with Ann Walker. This finally gave us the single narrative thread the ballet required to link scenes together and up our investment. As Ann, Rachael Gillespie shone. She was able to show both her immediate attraction to Anne and her uncertainty about entering into such a union. Her and Anne’s feet flicked and fluttered in desire as sparks flew between them (feet were a surprising and effective portrayer of emotion in this ballet), before they abandoned clothing on the floor for servants to discover later in one of the evening’s many humorous moments. At a ball (the only sumptuously set moment of the work, with lavish velvet curtains and the whole cast on stage as party guests), they danced together in full sight of everyone, including Anne’s ex Mariana, and Ann’s uncle (and Anne’s business adversary) Christopher Lawson (played with appropriate severity throughout by George Liang). The ballet ends with their wedding as they are lifted high above by people dressed as pages from Anne’s diary (this ‘Chorus of Words’ was a reoccurring motif, normally alongside some diary writing). I wish we could have built up to their wedding for longer so that final moment of triumph felt more earned.
In this tale of two halves, the linchpin is Anne herself. Danced by Gemma Coutts, she gave Anne an unbridled swagger. She swiped the front of her hat with confidence, deftly shifted her feet in flirtation, and easily switched between the choreography’s masc and femme flourishes. She certainly had the confidence and star quality required to take us on Anne’s journey.
It’s just a shame this journey felt like a series of glimpses into her life than a fleshed out story-arc.
★★★
Gentleman Jack, English National Ballet
Choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Sadler’s Wells, London / 19 May 2026
Until 5 September. View tour dates →
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