Nutcracker is a step back to magical times

By Gordon Barr, Evening Chronicle

Popular ballet The Nutcracker is at Newcastle’s Theatre Royal this week. Entertainment Editor GORDON BARR has the details.

THE Nutcracker is arguably the world’s most famous and popular ballet.

Now, as part of its 40th anniversary celebrations, award-winning company Scottish Ballet is bringing a magical revival of it to the Theatre Royal in Newcastle from Wednesday to Saturday this week.

The production, from artistic director Ashley Page is a vivid retelling of ETA Hoffmann’s original story.

It was the first in a trilogy of fairy tale ballets that Page developed after arriving at Scottish Ballet in 2002 and marked the beginning of a process that would help give the company a new and particular identity.

This 2010 revived version differs only slightly from the 2002 version in that it delves even deeper into the darker reaches of Hoffmann’s famous tale.

One snowy Christmas Eve, Marie hears the story of a brave young man who saves a princess from a horrible curse, and as she sleeps she is transported into a surreal dream world of evil governesses, magical dolls houses, mouse queens and disguised princes, where she must learn to fend for herself and discover the secret of true love.

Set during the Weimar Republic in Germany, designs for Scottish Ballet’s The Nutcracker are inspired by the vibrant colours and dream-like creations of the German Expressionist painters of the era. Yet despite striking out with bold new designs and quirky characters, Page and designer Antony McDonald still manage to deliver a cracker for all ages.

“That was the challenge,” says Page. “Could we create something that was bold and different, but which still gave the traditional ballet audience its ‘fix’? So we have tutus and glitter and pointe shoes, but sometimes they’re black pointe shoes and the costumes are exotic, fashionable and chic – which gives the production a different kind of kick.”

McDonald adds: “There had to be magic and there is a magical quality in what isn’t now.

“While we were inspired by the origins of the story set in the forests of Saxony and Bavaria, our world is one draped in 1920s glamour but merged with a magical backdrop of sparkling but bad snowflakes, an army of suffragette-styled mice and the eccentric children’s godfather Drosselmeyer dressed in elegant blue feathers by way of the surreal cartoons of expressionist artist Max Ernst.”