New Victoria Theatre Woking – until Saturday 23rd April 2022
Reviewed by Liberty Noke
4****
The Nutcracker is perhaps the most well known ballet so when I arrived at Woking theatre I thought I knew what to expect. I was wrong. This is the Nutcracker as you have never seen it before. Tchaikovsky’s amazing score is now being used to entertain a whole new audience with this modern take on a classic. The ballet opens in an orphanage and the orphans enter one by one some scared of the audience, others showing off, each with their own personalities. The first act is mostly set in the orphanage where the Orphans dance for the orphan governors at Christmas. The orphans are terrified of Dr Dross (Danny Reubens) and the Matron (Daisy May Kemp) both of whom have a powerful stage presence. Their children Sugar (Ashley Shaw) and Fritz (Dominic North) dance in front of the orphans both performers facial expressions and body language is perfect for the prideful, conceited characters. The orphans are given toys and Clara (Cordelia Braithwaite) is given a nutcracker which Sugar and Fritz become jealous of and try to break. Dr Dross confiscates the nutcracker and puts him in a cupboard. In the night the nutcracker comes to life and breaks out of the cupboard transporting Clara to a frozen lake. The colours in the orphanage are very dull and the orphans timid and frightened but this is in great contrast to Sweetieland which we are introduced to in act 2
In Sweetieland we meet a whole host of weird and wonderful characters. The humbug bouncer guards the door to a party and dancers dressed as sweets try to gain entry. These costumes are simply remarkable. They are like something from a child’s dream. Anthony Ward did an amazing job. The attention to detail was incredible. Fritz wore ice cream epaulettes and a candy cane crown. The Knickerbocker Glory (Jonathan Luke Baker) had an incredible ice cream wig and black harem pants. I also loved the marshmallow girls’ wigs. Much like the orphans each sweet had their own personality. The gobstoppers in particular were such unusual characters for a ballet they were very masculine their movements more modern but I loved this take. Clara loses the Nutcracker ( Harrison Dowzell) to Sugar and she chases him through Sweetieland but is too late and they get married. The audience share Clara’s disappointment as she watches but then her dream ends and we see her back in the orphanage. It appears the ballet will have an unhappy ending until the nutcracker awakes from her bed and they escape the orphanage together out the window.
This ballet is untraditional in so many ways there are no pointe shoes or traditional tutus but it is by no means less entertaining. I think the bright costumes and set and the changed plot make this ballet more accessible to a wider audience. The fun personalities and larger-than-life sets captured the imaginations of everyone young and old. I think it makes the perfect first ballet for a younger audience. Every dancer gave an amazing performance, when they were dancing as a company they moved as one. Overall a fantastic, if unconventional, ballet.