REVIEW: THE NUTCRACKER- THEATRE ROYAL, GLASGOW

The Nutcracker sets the stage alight in Matthew Bourne’s rendition of one of the most popular ballets of all time. Matthew Bourne: renowned for his all-male Swan Lake revives his gloriously irreverent interpretation of the classic Tchaikovsky ballet as it nears its twentieth anniversary.

The Nutcracker is traditionally a celebration of sweetness and Matthew Bourne’s version epitomises this sentimental and saccharine ‘sweetness’ in a modernised way.

The first act is a wickedly bleak deviation from the standard Victorian opulence of most productions to a grey, Dickensian orphanage. According to Bourne, “the Christmas party that opens most productions of The Nutcracker represented a fantasy in itself for most audiences”, reducing the possible potential for dreamland in the second act. The second act’s ‘Kingdom of Sweets’ is an all-out attack on sugar. Despite this, however, Bourne’s production is altogether darker than the original: to highlight Bourne’s departure from all things sweet and innocent, the antagonist is ironically named Sugar.

Hannah Valssalo (who recently played Baby in West End's Dirty Dancing) as Clara.

Bourne is a natural storyteller and the tale he tells is endearing as well as humorous: Clara and her fellow orphans are characterised with eccentric touching detail; the bespectacled, pyjama-clad cupids who haplessly try to mastermind Clara’s quest for true love, are earnest and silly. Underneath the jokes, however, Bourne’s love for The Nutcracker and the classic tradition is clear. The choreography is filled with subtle references to ballets by Robbins and Petipa which are given character and style by Bourne’s excellent choice of cast.

Amid all the fun, humour and great entertainment Clara (Hannah Vassalo) and the Nutcracker’s (Chris Trenfield) pas de deux is truly a thing of rare beauty, a wonderfully expressive dance. Bourne’s new generation of dancers’ embody praiseworthy stage presence with a level of technical accuracy which allows Bourne’s choreography to rise to the scale of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece.

Anthony Ward’s jagged grey and white set is a marvel, telling us everything we need to know about the misery of the lives spun out within it. But so, too, is Bourne’s poignant sense of drama: from the moment the dancers appear on the front of the stage during the prelude, each character and reaction is depicted with precision and humour. Bourne is a master of choreography as the new characters he incorporated into his production portray. There is no denying the spirited energy of the company who deliver the routines in incredibly precise style with fast-forward pirouettes and icicle-sharp footwork. His production is choreographed in an almost cartoon like manner: the flamenco-dancing Liquorice Allsorts (Liam Mower and Tom Jackson Greaves); Adam Maskell's Knickerbocker Glory, a drug-smoker with ice-cream hair; the ditzy Marshmallow Girls and the cheerful Gobstoppers in their bike jackets.

Overall, Bourne’s radical rethinking of a classic ballet has, along with Swan Lake and The Car Man, revolutionalised the world of ballet. Bourne has instilled life into a well known tale, thus making us rethink the ideas behind The Nutcracker. The conventions of classical ballet are still there: precisely accurate choreography and the traditional ballet technique. Yet, the combination of Bourne’s impressive choreography and Anthony Ward’s costumes and theatrical effects deliver a typically elegant theatrical ballet which is visually beautiful.

Buy tickets here:

http://www.atgtickets.com/Matthew-Bourne-s-Nutcracker-Tickets/6/703/