What's going on around the globe Matthew Bourne is not a man to shun experimentation. The British dancer-turned-choreographer is known for producing a gender-bending Swan Lake, turning Carmen into a bisexual mechanic and putting La Sylphide into Scottish kilts. So, it probably wasn't much of a stretch for him to rework Edward Scissorhands as a sort of Frankenstein-meets-West Side Story dance extravaganza - with no dialogue. Bourne calls it a dance musical. The 1990 Tim Burton movie tells the story of a shy boy with lethal cutting instruments for mitts who can tame the unruliest hedge or head of hair. Tears fall like rain when the cornbread, polyester-clad busybodies of Hope Springs try to banish him from their midst. But as anyone who has watched the movie knows, much of its pathos hangs on a single magic ingredient: Johnny Depp's doe-eyed handsomeness. Those dark eyes, glistening in a pancake-white face, suggested depths of incomprehension and pain that shot straight from big-screen close-ups into the tender hearts of millions of blubbering female fans. And when he wasn't breaking hearts with his eyes, Depp was melting them with his soft, butterscotch voice. Stripped of the Depp factor, Bourne's adaptation, which is about to take up residence for two weeks in Tokyo, prefers to let its feet and music do the talking. Bourne says Edward doesn't speak much in the film either and expresses himself mostly through movement. 'He's like a silent character in a way,' he says. Thus, the original Danny Elfman score is hyped into high melodrama with the help of composer Terry Davies. The dancers leap around with gusto, and the look is amped-up suburban Americana, with pink Lycra tracksuits, frilly cheerleader outfits and white picket fences. It's enough to make ballet cool. Audiences loved the new Edward during the show's successful run at London's Saddler's Wells Theatre. He's played this time by Sam Archer (below), who has his metal hands full. Not only must he live with the handicap of not being Johnny Depp, he has to leap about the stage for 40 minutes with the contents of a garden shed attached to his wrists, in a costume made from an old brown leather sofa, and without a toilet break. As for those hands, what are they all about? Bourne, who grew up dreaming about dancing and David Essex rather than soccer and Bo Derek, sees them as a metaphor for difference. 'Edward's scissorhands are symbolic of anything,' he says. 'It could be a racial thing and it could be a disability of some kind. He's the ultimate outsider.' Edward Scissorhands, U-Port Kan-i Hoken Hall, Tokyo. Ends Sept 3. Go to www.scissorhands.jp