Dance / Bristol Hippodrome
Review: The Nutcracker, Bristol Hippodrome – ‘a riotously kitsch fantasy show’
Now coming up to its 30th anniversary, Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! has been reimagined and is touring again for the first time in nearly a decade.
In the time since it was first staged, Bourne’s company New Adventures has become a giant of dance-theatre, touring nationally and internationally, and now with 13 full-length productions, six Oliviers and dozens of other awards to their name.
This show’s revamp is considerable, however. The seminal Tchaikovsky score remains as memorable and full of wonder and magic as ever, but there are significant changes within the choreography, and Anthony Ward’s stunning design has been refreshed to spectacular effect.
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We open in a beautifully off-kilter monochrome orphanage, all oddly angled and dominated by high tiled walls, in the charge of the slick and cartoonish Dr Dross (Danny Reubens) and his wife Mrs Dross, the unforgiving matron (Daisy May Kemp).
Bourne’s characteristic mash-up of dance styles is put to good use with his fondness for mime and gesture here taking the form of childlike playground games and mechanical doll-like motifs, in the midst of more lyrical ballet, jazz and contemporary.
Daisy May Kemp as Matron in Dr Dross’s Orphanage for Waifs and Strays – photo: Johan Persson
The Dross children Sugar (Ashley Shaw) and Fritz (Dominic North) exhibit a laudable commitment to facial expression throughout – it is his seamless blend of acting and dance that sets Bourne apart as a storyteller and has elevated New Adventures to the mainstream.
There is wonderful musicality and artistry on show, but Nutcracker! is also hugely playful and fun, never losing its sense of humour, and never becoming grandiose.
The most memorable scene of the piece is between Katrina Lyndon’s Clara and Harrison Dowzell’s Nutcracker, whose initial ventriloquist-dummy-like jerks are slowly overwhelmed by strength and beauty as he comes to life.
Cupid on the road to Sweetieland – photo: Johan Persson
In the second half, the tone shifts from the austere orphanage and shimmering beauty of the frozen lake, to one of sumptuous kitsch decadence – all pink froth and icing, as Clara lets the playground of her imagination run wild.
Although Clara loses out to Princess Sugar in the pursuit of her dream Nutcracker made flesh, this is a tale of first love, and sexual awakening.
The entrance to Sweetieland is through an open, lipsticked mouth, and beyond, a giant cake forms a magnificent basis for the magnificently bedecked Knickerbocker (danced with aplomb by Jonathon Luke Baker), replete with a cherry-topped cake on his head, the Allsorts Trio, the Marshmallow Girls, the Gobstoppers et al to parade on and around. It calls to mind the 1930s movie musical numbers that were such a totem for Bourne in making this production.
Traditionally, Nutcracker! tends to be a show featuring youth, but the fact that 17 of 33 dancers in this production have come through New Adventures’ talent development schemes is particularly heartening, in terms of securing the future direction and development of the company.
Photo: Johan Persson
As ever, Bourne uses costume and choreography to play with gender stereotypes and expectations. The high camp of the cake backdrop is amped up with recurrent motifs of licking, savouring and eating.
This new world, previously unfamiliar to Clara, is nevertheless delicious. And yet there is just enough nuance to keep the tone sweet without becoming saccharine.
In fact, like a fairground, there are times when Sweetieland deliberately blurs the boundaries between dream and nightmare; the distortion of mirrors, the smeary Joker-like lipstick on King Sherbert and Queen Candy; the sense that whatever Clara was running from might catch up with her again.
But as we jolt back to reality, and the confines of the orphanage once more, Bourne decides to give her the happy ending we were all hoping for.
Clara in her fantasy – photo: Johan Persson
To what extent we feel an emotional connection with the characters of Nutcracker! that goes beyond the surface is perhaps in question, but the delight and zest with which they perform is irresistible.
For Bourne devotees, Nutcracker! might not possess the emotional gut punch of Swan Lake, the choreographic heights of The Car Man, Cinderella, or the invention of The Red Shoes, but we’re having such a good time amidst the pink kitschness of it all, it hardly matters.
It’s an undeniably gorgeous show and a fabulous night out.
The Nutcracker is at Bristol Hippodrome, St Augustine’s Parade, Bristol, BS1 4UZ until February 5, at 7.30pm, with 2.30pm matinee shows on Thursday and Saturday. Tickets are available at www.atgtickets.com.
Main photo: Johan Persson
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