Nutcracker!

Synopsis

This delicious theatrical feast has family-sized helpings of Matthew Bourne’s trademark wit, pathos and magical fantasy. Nutcracker! follows Clara’s bittersweet journey from a hilariously bleak Christmas Eve at Dr. Dross’ Orphanage, through a shimmering, ice-skating winter wonderland to the scrumptious candy kingdom of Sweetieland.

Our Review:

19 December 2007

Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker dates from 1992, when his centenary version of Tchaikovsky’s imperishable ballet, based on a story by E T A Hoffman, was commissioned by Opera North. Bourne re-launched the show with his New Adventures company five years ago at Sadler’s Wells, and this revival marks its second return to Rosebery Avenue before embarking on an extensive national tour at the end of January.

It is sheer delight. Instead of the traditional opening of a family Christmas Eve interrupted by the arrival of Clara’s mysterious godfather Drosselmeyer, we are plunged into the cheerless world of Dr Dross’s orphanage for waifs and strays. Clara and the other orphans are dislocated from the Christmas family spirit and the story has somewhere to go.

That somewhere, of course, is the Land of Sweets, or Sweetieland as Bourne calls it, where Clara (Kerry Biggin) and her nutcracker soldier (Alan Vincent) – transformed from...

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Latest User Review

C. Sullivan - 4 January 2008:

This show is more like The Village People on acid at an orgy and should contain a disclaimer for those planning to bring children. It is not appropriate for children! The Nutcracker is a Christmas classic and this rendition has anything but class. I want to know who to talk to to get those 2 hours of my life back! HORRIBLE!!!...

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