'La Fille mal gardée' review — Frederick Ashton's romantic ballet is perfectly dreamy escapism

Read our review of La Fille mal gardée, starring Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntagirov, now in performances at the Royal Opera House to 9 June 2026.

Summary

• The Royal Ballet joyfully revive Frederick Ashton's pastoral masterpiece
• The show centres on two young lovers – landowner's daughter Lise and farmer Colas
• Marianela Nuñez is a perfect ray of sunshine as Lise
• Vadim Muntagirov also shines as her dashing suitor

Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry… Frederick Ashton’s 1960 pastoral masterpiece La Fille mal gardée (based on a work dating from 1789) is the English equivalent of a barn dance, and it returns to the Royal Opera House beautifully preserved rather than coated in aspic.

With its simple story, two-act structure, exquisite ribbon-ography, numerous visual gags, fetching costumes, and a special guest appearance from a real-life Shetland pony named Oscar, it would be an ideal first ballet for young audience members – and it’s also just the tonic for more world-weary theatregoers as the nights start to draw in.

Landowner’s daughter Lise and up-and-coming farmer Colas want to be together, but the course of young love never did run entirely smoothly. While there is some mild maternal disapproval and a sudden rainstorm that interrupts a picnic, there’s nothing that is actually threatening (no wicked fairies here). With a story-book design by Osbert Lancaster, it’s a “Marie Antoinette” imagining of the aesthetics of country life, in which contented and picturesque rustics are dressed in a rainbow of pristine pastel outfits, but the central relationships are recognisably human and brimming with winsomeness.

It's a ballet in which the ballerina is of course beautiful, and also funny with it. Marianela Nuñez, in her 27th season with the Royal Ballet, is the perfect ray of sunshine as a wilful teenager who’s a little spoiled but completely adorable. As her suitor, Vadim Muntagirov is dashingly princely and long-limbed (probably far more so than any real-life rural swain) and it’s only natural that they would consider themselves the luckiest young couple in the world and be fully aware of how radiant they are – in a way that elevates everyone around them, rather than making them feel excluded.

Ashton’s set-pieces and fancy footwork are a total delight. The pair explore their love in the farmyard through playing games with a length of pink ribbon (culminating in an intricate cat’s cradle), and in Act II show off in front of their friends and neighbours. Nuñez and Muntagirov allow themselves to beam directly at the audience after completing their variations – and it’s been earned.

There are so many props to manoeuvre in this piece, and the maypole dance is a masterpiece of intricacy. Lise’s clog-dancing mamma Widow Simone is performed with heart and gusto by Thomas Whitehead – she’s a little like Alison Steadman as Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice and clearly loves her daughter (and Lise is definitely a mummy’s girl at heart). Luca Acri is effectively tragicomic as the hapless Alain, the son of a rich vineyard owner who’s forced to court Lise, but is more devoted to his red umbrella than he’ll ever be to any girl.

The jaunty and dreamy score (a patchwork of pieces by Ferdinand Hérold) is merrily conducted by Jonathan Lo. It would be difficult not to be uplifted by the escapism that this piece provides and forget about the real world for a little while. A cream tea of a ballet, with plenty of raspberry jam.

La Fille mal gardée is at the Royal Opera House to 13 November, then returns 23 May-9 June 2026. Book La Fille mal gardée tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

Photo credit: La Fille mal gardée (Photos by Alice Pennefather)