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We all build up our own Christmas traditions
and naturally most of them are centred on celebrating Christ's
birth. But if one of your holiday treats is a theatre trip,
then there's plenty on offer at the moment. My choice, though,
would have to be that quintessential Christmas ballet, The
Nutcracker.
There are at least three different productions in London alone
this year: ultra-traditional at Covent Garden; traditional
with a twist (a bizarre combination of personal appearances
by Angelina Ballerina and costumes by satirist Gerald Scarfe)
from the English National Ballet; whilst up at Sadler's Well,
the appropriately titled New Adventures company give us Nutcracker!:
a completely different version, with choreography by Matthew
Bourne (who gave us the all-male corps de ballet of swans
in his reworking of Swan Lake some years ago).
Set in an unspeakably drab orphanage, rather than the wealthy
middle class drawing room of tradition, in this version Clara
is one of the wretched orphans required to dance and look
happy when the orphanage owner, Dr Dross,
his spoilt children and the trustees pay their seasonal visit.
Gifts are distributed but when the guests gone, the toys,
including the Nutcracker doll Clara chose, are locked in a
cupboard and the inmates packed off to bed.
While I'm sure the orphanage is riddled with rats, they don't
feature in this version - instead, Clara dreams of rescue:
the walls crack open to reveal a Nutcracker transformed to
hunky Prince who takes her away to a land of snow and ice
which looks magical after the orphanage gloom. But even in
Clara's dreams, there is unhappiness: as she skates with her
Prince in a delightful alternative to the dance of the snowflakes,
looking blissful, along comes the vacuously attractive Princess
Sugar, and the Prince's affections are diverted. At the end
of Act I, Clara has been abandoned.
Matthew Bourne finds a way round the traditional problem of
The Nutcracker(the narrative-heavy Act I appeals to children,
while Act II's series of national dances appeal more to adults)
by providing an emotionally satisfying story arc. Here, in
Act II, Clara is befriended by two charming angels in spectacles
and stripy pyjamas, who lead her to Sweetieland where Princess
Sugar and the Prince are to be married. The deliberate sickliness
of the dances by frivolous marshmallow 'It' girls and the
thuggish Gobstoppers (especially appealing to the boys in
the audience) is offset by the pathos of Clara desperately
wanting to find out if she is too late to save 'her' Prince...
Needless to say, Bourne's production finds a way to resolve
the story in a way that will leave everyone happy. His choreography
may not rival that of the traditional productions in its technical
brilliance and sophistication, but it cannot fail to delight
those new to the story and Nutcracker habituees. Bourne is
one of the few choreographers who can provoke genuine laughter
in an audience without sacrificing the depth his company bring
to their characters. For once, the dancers are equally strong
actors, which provides a Nutcracker unlike any you will have
seen before: one which moves you and leaves you feeling utterly
joyful. And you can't get much more Christmassy than that!
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