English National Ballet in Nutcracker
English National Ballet has just premiered its new Nutcracker with steps by Arielle Smith & director Aaron S. Watkin…
Emma Hawes, as the Sugar Plum Fairy, with Aitor Arrieta, in ‘Nutcracker’. © @FoteiniPhoto.
English National Ballet
Nutcracker
★★★✰✰
London, Coliseum
12 December 2024
www.ballet.org.uk
londoncoliseum.org
English National Ballet (ENB) has treated itself to a new Nutcracker - a significant event given how many times it will be performed in the coming years and how much they, like all ballet companies, rely on good box office receipts at Christmas.
This latest production is driven by new artistic director Aaron S. Watkin, features choreography from him and the much-in-demand and admired Arielle Smith. Watkin was previously the director at Semperoper Ballett in Dresden, where he created many classical works, including a Nutcracker. The designs are by Dick Bird, who has considerable ballet experience and notably worked with Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) on their Albert Hall Nutcracker and with David Bintley on BRB’s Aladdin. It’s an experienced team, and one senses they have been well-funded.
The first thing to note is that it is not a radical interpretation of this well-known ballet; there are twists, but essentially we have an eventful Christmas party and a young girl’s dream (Clara) that transports her to fantastical realms of Ice, Snow, and Sweets. The action begins in Drosselmeyer’s workshop — he is a toymaker, purveyor of sweets, and part-time magician. We see him making the Nutcracker doll, bustling city streets, Clara buying sweets from his shop and a Christmas street market. Many characters appear here who are later developed; they serve as fuel for Clara’s dream. After sweets are bought, we move to the family party, which immediately springs to life with dance and hijinks from the children involved. Overall, the start of the new Nutcracker is brisk and engaging.
The designs are set in the Edwardian era (circa 1910), allowing for attractive and notably slimmer costumes at the party than we typically see — everyone looks a million dollars. I also appreciated the choreography for the children, which seemed naturally playful and unrestrained rather than stiff stereotypes. Drosselmeyer delivers presents, including the Nutcracker doll, but does little magic. That’s good, because magic can be problematic to deliver, and it’s bad because we all like magic, don’t we? Overall the show is less centred on Drosselmeyer and more driven by Clara. The party also features a theatrical display of life-size dancing marionettes and some amusing servants and old folk that add more interest. Party over, it’s bedtime…
I’m afraid to say that the transformation into Clara’s dream world is an enormous let-down. A lot of heavy lifting is done by some projections, mainly featuring firefly-like multicoloured lights swirling around the space, but they do go on for a long time while nothing else happens. Then, suddenly, bang, we get a stage transformed to show us the bottom of the Christmas tree, a castle, and soldiers. There is no sense of a room slowly and cleverly developing into something much bigger. The fight with the mice/rats also seemed to lack pace, although it is nice to see Clara brandishing a sword and unceremoniously running through the Rat King to rescue the Nutcracker, who is now a Prince. This is nominally a feisty adolescent Clara, who has taken over from the child Clara we saw at first.
Adolescent Clara is danced by Ivana Bueno, and her Prince is portrayed by Francesco Gabriele Frola, and they really navigate the rest of the ballet together. Bueno’s approach seems to emphasise full-on voluptuous womanhood; hers appears to be a dance of knowing abandon at times. It may work well in the right context, but it felt rather off here. Frola is simply impeccable.
The corps did nice work in ‘The Ice Realm’ and the Waltz of the Buttercream Roses (née Flowers) in the “Land of Sweets and Delights.” Watkin and his Music Director/Conductor, Maria Seletskaja, have made the decision to run the music a little quicker than many companies, which is welcome. The steps are classical and neo-classical; I’m not sure I saw anything revelatory, but they were respectable, albeit with the odd first-night fluff. I really liked Emma Hawes’s calmly assured Sugar Plum Fairy, with Aitor Arrieta a little left behind as the Cavalier. Earlier, they had appeared as Clara’s parents, so it is fitting that they are at the pinnacle of the dream as well.
In the Land of Sweets, there has been a good move to concentrate on various sweets from around the world rather than relying on national dance stereotypes. Although ENB dancers generally delivered convincingly, the big hit was the Dance of the Liquorice Allsorts, performed mostly by a beaming cohort of tiny dancers from the Adagio School of Dance and the West London School of Dance. They were glorious and won everybody’s heart after all the grown-up stuff.
The strengths of ENB’s new Nutcracker are its initial sense of pace, its focus on Clara, the charming and natural portrayal of children throughout the production, and, finally, an absorbing Land of Sweets act. I’m less sure about an adolescent Clara being danced in quite such a womanly way, and the transformation scene currently feels pretty disappointing. But it’s a very colourful production that will wear well as the company gets under its skin. There’s also a lot going on, and I’m sure it will easily bear repeat watching — no bad thing in a ballet that will garner as many viewings as this one will.