Nutcracker contains more well-known tunes per square yard than probably any other ballet and I suppose there is always the danger that familiarity breeds, if not contempt, then a hope that something new will be brought to the proceedings . . . this production manages to create something that borders on magical and, in places, almost surreal . . .
Read MoreI would argue that Claude Debussy’s dark meandering score for Maeterlinck’s original play, part fairy story, part symbolist essay, is one for the more academic, purist of opera-goers. A gloomy tale in a shady place, this is not so much an entertainment as a show of technical prowess for digestion. All credit must go to the impeccable skills of the English Touring Opera’s singers and orchestra who followed the composer’s complex pathways of discordant harmony with utter conviction, in sequences of self-possessed musical exploration.
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According to Shakespeare, the course of true love never did run smooth. According to William Congreve, playwright of Restoration England, by his time it had almost ground to a halt. And with Love for Love, his comedy of 1695, he had enormous fun satirising high society with that concept. The work has become a classic and in this spirited version, director Selina Cadell and a fine cast, add energetic lustre to its long tradition. As the vain fop Tattle explains, relations between the sexes are simple if you just remember that all well-bred people lie, and that a women should never speak what she thinks. No means yes, and the rest follows on.
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Directed by Richard Eyre, co-directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne and with book by Julian Fellowes, there can have been few musicals to beat this one for the quality of its creative team . . . From the high-speed fun and games of ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ to the gentle sentimentality of ‘Feed The Birds’ this production never fails to deliver, taking older members of the audience back to their childhood and leaving younger ones wide-eyed in wonder. One song is titled ‘Practically Perfect’ – fair comment!
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Rebecca Lenkiewicz is happy to take on a large well-thumbed subject and find it new and fresh. She can write a good character and place it comfortably in a historical context. The play is full of them, each one demanding attention, from a strong cast happily devoid of weak links. It is a well-made play in the best sense, having its own internal rhythm and emotional sweep, which leads to its disturbing climax.
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It is a wise decision to rid the Birmingham Rep’s Door Theatre of its curtain for this production otherwise its opening scenes would be muffled by the pantomime oohs and aahs of the audience upon seeing the magnificent set – an airplane fuselage and luggage incongruous in a jungle setting . . . The complex yet practical set includes fire pits, drop-down ramps, miniature ladders, ropes and hidden compartments, all of which are gradually unveiled, so that what is man-made and what is of nature become inseparable, if not indistinguishable.
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