Gentleman Jack – Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield

Choreographer: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Composer: Peter Salem

Dramaturg: Clare Croft

Gentleman Jack by Northern Ballet has been years in the making. It is a co-production with Finnish National Opera and Ballet. Its world premiere was performed in Leeds in March this year.

Anne Lister, the heroine, is a complex character and exceptional for her time in the early 19h century. She was an astute business woman, had female lovers and went on to inherit Shibden Hall in Yorkshire. She was a prolific diarist and wrote in a self-made code from mathematics and Latin. If it was not for her diaries her story would have been lost. Anne Lister endeavoured to have the equal freedoms that men in her society had and also to maintain the class hierarchies of the time.

It was a bold move for Northern Ballet to reconceptualise a new and different type of heroine, more fitting for the 21st century and its affirmation of queer culture. The ballet features three female leads which breaks with traditional ballet. In recognition it was awarded the Fedora-Van Cleef & Arpels Dance Prize 2025.

Life for the inimitable, passionate Anne Lister must have been very challenging. Clare Croft, the Dramaturg, and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, the Choreographer, together have been so successful in telling this woman’s story in a most compelling way. Peter Salem has composed new music for the ballet, which reflects the character of this strong Yorkshire woman, her sensual desires, wit, impatience and controlling manner, and the conflicts she encountered. The music is superb.

Gemma Coutts as Anne Lister is on stage throughout the performance. It is a demanding role for any dancer and one that Coutts performs with such panache. Anne Lister’s nemesis is Christopher Rawston (George Liang) a wealthy business man. Anne is not cowed by the domineering Rawson and the portrayal of the rivalry and interaction between the two is great to see.

In the ballet Anne Lister has two lovers, the first is Mariana Lawton (Saeka Shirai) who is married to Charles Lawton. Anne and Mariana dance a secretively tender, sensual duet but when her husband discovers their relationship, Mariana sticks with convention and stays with her husband.

Anne records all this in her diaries and as she writes the corps de ballet portray the words pouring out of her, illustrating for the audience her passions and thoughts, pulling her hither and thither.

The men are not happy with Anne’s unusual and unconventional manner, her challenging attitude and as a result she is brutally attacked by them. She returns to Shibden Hall, where her aunt and uncle are compassionate and Anne decides to go off to Paris. In  Paris her spirits are restored as she indulges in its sensual pleasures. She returns to Yorkshire where she meets the young, retiring heiress Ann Walker (Rachael Gillespie). At first not sure how to react to Anne’s advances, Ann Walker allows herself to fall in love. The two eventually marry in spirit at least, and spend their lives together.

Anne Lister did not conform not only in manner, but in dress. Louise Flanagan has designed in the 1830s style but with a contemporary nod to lesbian fashion, the swirling dress coat of Anne Lister wonderfully portrays power and impatience. There is an imaginative use of video which is incorporated in the props, to indicate travel and location.

This ballet is both refreshing and compelling in its storytelling. The dancing as always with the Northern Ballet is first-rate, the music wonderful. It is a ballet with a difference.

Runs until 4th April 2026 and then touring nationwide