This week’s premiere of English National Ballet’s brand new Nutcracker (replacing Wayne Eagling’s hugely successful 2010 production) at the London Coliseum was a starry affair, made all the more electric by a fantastically festive production where the emphasis was most certainly on the fantastical and I came away feeling 4 rather than my almost 40 years. Although serious ballet lovers often dismiss Nutcracker as little more than a pantomime, there’s no better way to channel your inner child and introduce the next generation to the joy of classical dance. Nutcracker has remained an integral feature of ENB’s repertoire since the company was founded in 1950 and this production is undoubtedly their most creative version to date. Having had the pleasure of seeing the more traditional Eagling production several times without tiring of it, my expectations were high. For many of us Nutcracker is an essential part of the Christmas tradition, and audiences of all ages could hardly fail to be charmed by this flamboyant new take on ETA Hoffman’s story.
A collaboration between ENB’s Artistic Director Aaron S. Watkin (who succeeded Tamara Rojo last year) and Olivier Award-winning choreographer Arielle Smith, designer Dick Bird was also an integral part of bringing the Watkin/Smith vision to life, offering as he does a kaleidoscope of costumes and sets which take a marvelling audience from Edwardian London on Christmas Eve in Act I to the mouth-watering Land of Sweets and Delights in Act II, with Leo Flint’s video design adding virtual stardust to this no-expense-spared staging. Maria Seletskaja conducts the English National Ballet Philharmonic with a delicacy of touch that prompts a renewed appreciation of Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece: the first notes of the iconic score proving as crisp and fresh as newly fallen snow.
The company are also entirely at one with the orchestra, something immediately clear as the first scene opens in Drosselmeyer’s workshop, where he and his assistants make the finishing touches to the toys soon to find new homes – keenly aware of their responsibility as wish-makers. Souza is perfectly cast in the Nutty Professor-style role of Drosselmeyer, with a fast-paced set change moving to his Emporium of Sweets and Delights where our young heroine, Clara Stahlbaum (Delilah Wiggins) and her mother (Emma Hawes) select the liquorice allsorts, nougat, marzipan and sugarplums for the family’s imminent Christmas Eve party. Possessing grace and personality, Wiggins is not only a fine and confident young dancer but brings a three-dimensional quality to Clara that is nothing short of astonishing, and I imagine it will be a very long time before I see another equal her performance: the balletic equivalent of Jenny Agutter in The Railway Children and every bit as endearing.
Before we arrive home with the Stahlbaums, the audience is given a plum-pudding-sized helping of a snowy Dickensian-esque street scene, complete with stall sellers, Mary Poppins-style chimney sweeps (Matthew Aspley and Rhys Antoni Yeomans) and Suffragettes (Maddison Araceli Wilmott and Sarah Hirsch) wielding ‘Votes for Women’ placards, for politics rarely takes a break, even on Christmas Eve! Within a blink of an eye we enter the festive Stahlbaums residence where the party includes a marvellous sequence of adults dancing, while Clara and her siblings, Freddie (Collins Rodrigues-Hesketh) and Louise (Moraya Kemp) are entertained by Drosselmeyer’s epic toy theatre as they eagerly await their Christmas gifts. The brother and sister’s presents proving rather dull in comparison to Clara’s nutcracker doll which is broken and magically repaired by Drosselmeyer. Finally it is time for bed, although Clara, who can’t bear to be parted from her beloved nutcracker, creeps downstairs to sleep upon a sofa with her present cradled in her arms in a poignant reminder to the adults in the audience of the excitement of Christmases past and how important it is to cherish this fleeting magic.
Clara dreams of an adventure in which she, now played by First Artist Ivana Bueno, bravely defends her home from the Rat King (James Streeter returning to the role) and his fiendish-looking rat troops. Clara is assisted by the larger-than-life Nutcracker Doll (energetically danced by Rhys Antoni Yeomans) and, rather bizarrely the Suffragettes who perhaps view male politicians and rats as one and the same! When the battle is safely won, we follow our heroine to a dazzling ice realm presided over by the Ice Queen (Anna Nevzorova, seen earlier as Clara’s eccentric aunt) and inhabited by waltzing Snowflakes and Icicles: a magical sequence elevated by the lullaby-like tones of the Trinity Voices Choir. Next, accompanied by the dashing Nutcracker Prince (Francesco Garbriele Frola), Clara boards her fantasy ice sleigh led by an ice-sculpted seahorse and the audience are offered a rather dizzying flight simulator as the pair pass through pink fluffy clouds before arriving at the Land of Sweets & Delights where the Sugar Plum Fairy (Emma Hawes) has arranged a grand celebration in Clara’s honour.
Hawes, having left her first character, Mrs Stahlbaum, behind, is the epitome of why little girls want to be ballerinas and the moment she enters as the iconic Sugar Plum Fairy, securing the recruitment of dozens of future dance stars in the audience, wowed with her charismatic display of the most technical choreography, including an enchanting pas de deux with Sugar Plum Cavalier (Aitor Arrieta). The Land of Sweets & Delights is a masterful final showpiece, with the Waltz of the Buttercream Roses and a variety of sweet-themed dances to sink your teeth into, from witty representations of Spanish nougat and German Marzipan to Ukrainian poppyseed roll, Egyptian hot orchid root milk with cinnamon and Chinese candied hawthorn berries – an array of amusing if not very obvious sweet treats determined to put a smile on your face! All are a delight to watch, yet the most endearing dance is that of the Liquorice Allsorts (reminiscent of Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker!, first staged in 1992), performed by the young Students of Adagio School of Dance and the West London School of Dance and prompting “ahhhs” and spontaneous applause from the audience. This world-class Nutcracker, featuring spectacular choreography and design, more than justifies the price of a ticket. Dispensing with much of the formality you expect from a classical ballet in favour of creativity and imagination, this production is destined to live in the viewer’s memory for a long time to come. Arrange a coach driven by a fleet of ice sculpted seahorses and take the whole family!
English National Ballet’s Nutcracker at London Coliseum until Sunday 12th January 2025. Running time: 2 hours including 1 interval. For more information and tickets please visit the website. Production images by Johan Persson.
