Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée remains one of the finest light-hearted ballets with a gentle humour and a faith in the power of young love to conquer all adversity.

It is a simple story – Lise and Colas are in love and want to be married but Lise’s mum the Widow Simone is convinced that Alain, the son of a rich local landowner, is the better option and is determined to enforce her view.

Set against an idyllic country backdrop where villagers have plenty of time to dance around maypoles and stacks of wheat, it’s all very idealistic.

The simplicity and the charm of the story belie Ashton’s devilishly difficult choreography which calls on all members of the Birmingham Royal Ballet company to be on their toes in all senses of the word.

Beatrice Parma gives us a Lise full of character. She is mischievous and cheeky, pushing the boundaries and breaking the rules as all teenagers should. There is a lot of foot stamping and hands on hips as she fights her mother’s choice both to her face and behind her back. Even audience members who don’t know the story must be pretty certain she is going to get her own way.

As her lover Colas Enrique Bejarano Vidal is equally naughty, stealing kisses while she is being wooed by Alain and getting his friends to sneak him into her home. Vidal is charming and incredibly sweet in his romancing of Lise so that it is easy to see why she prefers him over Alain.

Both Parma and Vidal succeed in mastering Ashton’s tricky choreography so we are unaware of the effort that goes into some of the pas de deux and lifts.

But in a comic opera the comedy character always steals the show and Rory Mackay’s Widow Simone is just wonderful. His comic timing, facial expressions and body movements all give us a figure who can evoke laughter in the tradition of the pantomime dame while retaining the exactitude that ballet requires.

Gus Payne’s Alain also piles on the comedy in layers, prancing around the stage eyeing up all of the girls so that we feel no sympathy for him when Lise puts him aside for Colas.

Also in the character role of Alain’s father is Jonathan Payn who flips between encouraging and literally pushing his son into the proposed marriage and gives us plenty of rage when his plans are foiled.

This production of La Fille mal gardée was premiered in 1960 and it has stood the measure of time really well. Osbert Lancaster’s sets and the costumes remain fresh with the details catching the eye.

There is plenty to keep the corps busy not least with the complicated maypole dance and stick dance and there are moments when the corps could tighten up a little but it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of the show.

The John Lanchbery arrangement of Ferdinand Hérold’s score continues to delight with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia under the baton of Wolfgang Heinz bringing its harmonies but also its intricacies to the fore.

Four stars

BRB’s La Fille mal gardée was reviewed by Diane Parkes on Wednesday 25 September at Birmingham Hippodrome, where it shows until 28 September, followed by the new production Luna on 3-5 October.