HELEN SLATER casts a seasoned eye over Ashley Page’s radical transformation of the traditional Nutcracker tale.

THIS IS an “Alice-through-the-Looking Glass” production of ‘The Nutcracker’, and nothing like Scottish Ballet’s previous versions that I remember from many years ago.  Gone is the sugary sweet sugar plum taste and the overblown romanticism.  In its place is a dance-drama that bases itself on the original story by Hoffman and puts the grit back into the fairytale.  Even Tchaikovsky’s score sounds different as I begin to hear the darker tones in it for, it seems like, the first time.

The mood of the piece is signalled from the moment the curtain opens with the backdrop directly behind it showing a shocked face reading a book – its skull cracked open like a walnut, exposing the brain.  Inside the head a figure in a white lab coat is busy in his workshop, cutting open another skull in a matter-of-fact way that makes the act seem all the more sinister.

The figure’s heavy spectacles and peroxide hair (like Andy Warhol on a bad day or Shock Headed Peter) make him look every bit the mad professor – eccentric, wild and dangerous – yet strangely attractive.  This is Herr Dosselmeyer, who is the godfather of the Stahlbaum children.  It is from Dosselmeyer’s frequent presence on the stage, as a kind of master of ceremonies, that the magic of the story seems to unfold.

Indeed the sense of an unknown presence is there at many times throughout the production adding to the atmosphere of unease and the suggestion of some unseen threat.  In part this is realised through the set which at one point includes a gigantic face that appears at the the window and a huge Pythonesque-like hand dangling an enormous watch.  The feeling becomes gradually more disturbing as Marie’s dream is revealed and the walls of the Strahlbaum’s house become distorted and disjointed, learing over the characters as they tell the story to us.

Everyday objects grow to be oversized as the tale becomes more and more surreal.  A pot plant becomes the battlements of a castle from which the Nutcracker soldier keeps guard, and the mirror above the fireplace becomes a window on the world as dancers appear through it from all corners of the globe.

The design of the piece has a 1920’s or even early 1930’s feel to it with Art Deco interiors and fabulous complimentary costumes.  This is especially obvious in the opening party scene and comes through very much in the choreography which reflects the social dance of the era.  Much of the movement in the 1st Act borrows from contemporary dance styles as much as ballet and the broader vocabulary allows it to be highly expressive – for example in the battle scene between the soldiers and the army of mice headed by the superb Dame Mouserink.

One tableau that is particularly memorable comes at the end of the dance of the snowflakes which has a somewhat menacing tone to it.  At the end of this dance, where in other productions the lead female might be framed in celebratory mode, Marie is found surrounded by her entourage with her shoulders hunched and her hands clasped tightly over her head.

The core of the choreography in the 2nd Act tends to be more classically based with most of the women en pointe and culminating in the exquisite pas de deux between Marie and the Prince.  However there are still many other influences present particularly because of the content of the narrative which showcases dance styles from an array of different nationalities.

This is reflected most obviously in the music where the dances from each country use the rhythms and characteristics of their respective culture, often highlighting certain instruments in the orchestra such as flutes and piccolo in the Chinese dance or percussion and trumpets in the Spanish dance.

The choreography in each of the dances makes effective use of humour and each manages to evoke the character of its country in a very short space of time e.g. the sensuous quality of the Arabian dance where the woman is lifted and manipulated by 3 men and rarely makes any contact with the floor.

Overall I dearly wish that I had seen production when it toured to Inverness last year as it would have been very satisfying to see it a second time round.  Scottish Ballet is looking like quite a different company since Ashley Page took over as Artistic Director.

The dancers are strong, technically proficient and coping with a much wider range of movement that they were before, and the repertoire is stretching their abilities to the full.  It is exciting to watch how they are progressing and to see them making strides forward in a new direction.

© Helen Slater, 2005

Related Links:

Scottish Ballet website
Nutcracker review by Catriona Burns