A tough nut to crack

Every little girl dreams of being the Sugar Plum Fairy. Amidst the complex tale of The Nutcracker, she embodies magic: a beautiful ballerina who glistens like freshly-fallen snow and wins the heart of the handsome Prince. The challenge with this quintessential ballet is how to make it stand out from a crowd of Nutcracker pasts. Besides the enchanting Tchaikovsky score and headache of a plot, the rest is pure, artistic licence. But Wayne Eagling, the Artistic Director of the English National Ballet’s Nutcracker, well, his imagination nearly misses the point. It is Clara’s adolescent dream of first love- the charm of the Sugar Plum Fairy- which becomes the kernel of his production. But, in stripping away the intricate wrappings of the story, he has tried to be too clever- and the result is a darkly sinister spin which bewilders the audience and dulls the magic. The ballet’s pivotal transformation scenes become laboured and muddled, particularly the moment when Clara dreams herself into the Sugar Plum Fairy who dances with her dashing Prince. The tale itself is already a myriad of toys and magic, dream and reality- and Eagling loses the plot, the Nutcracker darkly morphing into Drosselmeyer’s handsome nephew and back again, a few too many times. The battle scene between the Mouse King and the tin soldiers also lacks wattage - yes, the giant mousetrap moment made us all laugh, but the choreography was too much movement and not nearly enough panache. It’s too apocalyptic, set against ugly brown walls- lacking the colour and charm that would have it compete with other productions.

But with artistic licence comes the need for subjectivity. And, at moments, you can see why Eagling’s darker, more traditional take on this much-loved classic shines. Act One’s Christmas party is enchantingly staged by Peter Farmer, simply presided over by a giant Christmas tree (which later will be conjured into a supersized forest pine). The party guests even arrive at the dark Edwardian house on ice-skates, a bit of gliding theatrical magic on a frozen Thames. Magic is also retained in the exquisite costumes (oh those glittering Swarovski diamonds in the Dance of the Snowflakes) and who isn’t mesmerised by a giant hot air balloon that lifts Clara and the Nutcracker Prince to the Land of Sweets? Against the flurry of snowflakes, it’s irresistibly festive. In the end, every Nutcracker hinges on the choreographic chemistry of the lead couple in the final pas de deux. We caught the cast with Elena Glurjidze and Fabian Reimair, who danced with an exquisite magic that left the darker, more bemused elements of the production buried in snow- and ensured that the Sugar Plum Fairy remains every little girl’s Christmas wish.