IT has been almost two decades since director-choreographer Matthew Bourne premiered his startling reinterpretation of Swan Lake in 1995.

The 53-year-old speaks to critic Matt Wolf about the inspiration for the cultural phenomenon which came to him in a daydream and reflects on the ballet’s continued success.

Swan Lake comes to The Lowry in Salford Quays between November 12 and 16.

When Swan Lake premiered at London’s Sadler’s Wells Theatre, did you have any idea it would go on to achieve such longevity?

Absolutely not. You couldn’t predict anything like that. I just remember in the rehearsal room having to get the thing done.

It was a long piece – the longest by far that I had done up to that point – so it was about working away at just trying to do the best that we could do, and I wasn’t really thinking beyond that.

Nonetheless, the venture must have prompted speculation in the dance world and beyond.

It did. There were all sorts of doubts expressed by people outside of the room, and I was well aware that there were two prevailing camps.

One group was sure that the piece was going to be hilarious and a real send-up; they were the ones who couldn’t wait.

There were others who kept saying: ‘You do know it’s a tragedy and you’re not going to mess around with it, are you?’

What did you think you had in the rehearsal room itself?

I remember all of us feeling that we liked the idea and that we had something that we thought could work but I don’t think we were over-confident.

It was more about a sense of us working towards the same thing and a confidence simply in the fact that we liked the idea of what we were doing.

Can you recall the actual seedbed for the idea – the moment when the project itself actually took hold?

The very first idea was the thought of all-male swans.

That had come to me watching the ballet long before I ever had a company or any possibility of doing Swan Lake at all – it was just a daydream.

I remember being intrigued as to what that might do to the plot.

It helped that I had seen the ballet itself a lot, so I had this memory of Royal Ballet dancer Anthony Dowell as the Prince wandering around in act one pretty much saying: ‘No, I will not get married: take her away, I want something else’.

So I just thought: ‘Oh, there’s something going on in this story that is not being told.’

What was that precisely?

I think it was that feeling of someone who is yearning for something, which seemed to me a metaphor for someone who is possibly gay or who maybe just wanted a different kind of woman or something like that.

It definitely felt to me like something that was there in the ballet itself and not like anything I had invented.

And if you considered Tchaikovsky’s own life and the turmoil and violence in the music, that also suggested something much deeper than a lot of pretty swans in a row.

Do you remember a click moment in performance when you sensed a hit on your hands?

Very much so. The bit I think that made the audience go completely quiet was the entrance of Adam Cooper as the Swan.

All of a sudden, you felt people thinking: ‘This isn’t what we were expecting’ – it suddenly went very quiet, very serious.

Once the second half got going and we were into the ball scene it all became suddenly electric and then when Adam came on in his leather trousers as the Black Swan it really caught fire.

At the end there was this spontaneous roar that the piece has got ever since, and that was honestly something I had not expected at all.

It must be infuriating when you hear the piece described as ‘the all-male Swan Lake’, since there are women prominently featured in the cast, albeit not as the swans.

Very much so and we’ve had some wonderful women over time, from Fiona Chadwick and Etta Murfitt onwards.

The thing is, that misperception is so easy to say and it makes sense to everyone but I do have to correct it.

For one thing I don’t want people sitting there thinking in the scenes with the royals that they are watching men in drag.

n Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake comes to The Lowry’s Lyric Theatre in Salford Quays between November 12 and 16. Ticket prices vary. Visit thelowry.com or call 0843 208 6010