Show: Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker!
Society: New Victoria Theatre (professional productions)
Venue: New Victoria Theatre. The Ambassadors, The Peacocks Centre, Woking, Surrey GU21 6GQ
Credits: Music by Tchaikovsky. Produced by New Adventures.
Type: Sardines
Performance Date: 19/04/2022
Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker!
Image: Matthew Bourne’s NUTCRACKER! Dominic North and Ashley Shaw. Photo: Johan Persson
This has got to be the tastiest, mouth-watering sweet-fest of all of Matthew Bourne’s productions to ever be staged at the New Victoria Theatre in Woking, or indeed anywhere. It’s a voyage into the world of fantasy with whopping great portions of Bourne’s trademark magical make-believe, wit and pathos. The show follows Clara’s journey from a cold and dingy Christmas Eve at Dr Dross’ Orphanage, through an iridescent, sparkling, ice-skating winter wonderland to the mouth-watering candy kingdom of Sweetieland. Bourne’s vision and choreography is influenced by the lavish Hollywood musicals of the 1930’s.
Tchaikovsky’s fantastic score along with Anthony Wards phantasmagorical sets and costumes combine Bourne’s out-of-this-world choreography to create a fresh interpretation of the traditional Christmas favourite, making it completely and enchantingly spectacular. Bourne has added a sprinkling of enthralling new surprises in this reinvented production.
The success of the Nutcracker as an enduring Christmas ballet is thanks to its festive theme and endlessly tuneful Tchaikovsky score. Instead of the settings we often see, Bourne’s Clara (Cordelia Braithwaite) lives in a monochrome orphanage presided over by a tyrannical matron (Daisy May Kemp) and Dr Dross (Danny Reubens) who is reminiscent of Herr Flick from ’Allo ’Allo with his wonderful costume and movements. The children in the orphanage always dream of escaping from its prison-like confines, which is what this fantasy is all about.
The children all receive dowdy presents from the orphanage’s governors. When Clara’s present of a nutcracker doll is made human at the stroke of midnight, he turns into a dream-boat (Harrison Dowzell), but Clara has competition from the selfish Sugar (Ashley Shaw), the daughter of Dr Dross and the Matron, who steals Clara’s man, who takes her on a journey to Sweetieland. Clara is in tears, but is then led to Sweetieland over a frozen lake by two Cupids (Enrique Ngbokota and Shoko Ito) dressed in pyjamas with wings.
The scene on the frozen lake is magnificent with a light layer of mist creeping along the floor, and the footwork and ballet steps of the ensemble had you thinking they were really skating on ice – it was so realistic.
All the characters from the orphanage re-appear in Clara’s fantasy, reincarnated as sweets: a group of marshmallow girls in their frilly pink tutus, some flamenco-dancing Liquorice Allsorts and a trio of degenerate Gobstoppers complete with colour co-ordinated crash helmets. It’s all somehow very innocent while being under a dark cloud. Everybody enters Sweetieland through the portals of a giant mouth guarded by a humbug bouncer. Anthony Ward’s designs use skewed perspective and flamboyant colours for the set, costumes and hairstyles.
Bourne transforms some of the Nutcracker’s “national” dances by reinventing many of them into confectionary favourites, like the Arabian dance for the slinky and seductive Knickerbocker Glory (Jonathon Luke Baker), in his colourful costume of raspberry coloured blouson jacket, balloon pantaloons and his whippy ice-cream hairdo with cherry on top. All his moves are comic but can be perceived as slightly creepy and performed with a sardonic smile.
(Dominic North) is fantastic as Fritz, Dr Dross’s obnoxiously spoiled son, who’s transformed into the gluttonous and somewhat saucy Prince Bon-Bon, along with (Ashly Shaw) the Dross’s Chelsea-style socialite daughter who is transformed into Princess Sugar.
The whole cast are incredibly talented as they all rotate through the different roles in the production on different dates without putting a foot wrong, and with immaculate reactions. The names I have mentioned in this review were the ones that I saw on stage the night I was there. You obviously have to be a talented physical dancer to excel in Bourne’s shows (or certainly in this one) and act with your face to portray the different emotions that the character is going through while dancing the moves impeccably. Everyone is forever full of energy in this very enjoyable show.