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Nutcracker!: The Alhambra, Bradford
ASK your average man or woman on the street to name a ballet and, save for Swan Lake, The Nutcracker is the one they’ll most likely come up with.
Yet it’s probably the ballet which is most likely to leave the average man or woman scratching their heads after watching it.
“For some reason it’s always thought of as the first piece you should take someone to by way of an introduction to ballet,” says Matthew Bourne, the acclaimed choreographer responsible for creating a new, more accessible version of Tchaikovsky’s classic. “but in some ways the original doesn’t really deliver.
“The Nutcracker doesn’t really show what dance can do to tell a story. The result is, I think, that some people come out of performances confused, which only adds to the sense that people feel confused by dance in general. They feel they just don’t get it.”
It was that sentiment which Bourne battled to counteract when, 20 years ago, he first created his lighter, brighter, funnier version with a beefed up storyline specifically designed to draw in crowds beyond the usual ballet stalwarts. Now he’s revived and reconfigured the show with the latest version coming to The Alhambra, Bradford, for one week only at the start of April.
The trouble with the original, which centred around a little girl Clara who is transported to a magical land from her rich family home, is that after the second act, there isn’t much plot to speak of. Instead the ballet is essentially a series of dances, among them one of the most famous: the dance of the sugar plum fairy.
But in this version the narrative begins in a grey, characterless orphanage where Clara falls for a boy but then has to journey into the technicoloured fantasy world of Sweetieland to win him back. She bumps into numerous characters along the way, all of which are based on confectionary: dolly mixtures, gobstoppers and candy floss.
The net result is something which dispels some of the more confusing elements of the original, not to mention some of the highbrow elements of classical ballet.
Bourne says: “There are some things about ballet that are very offputting. And as much as many people love those things there’s alot of people who feel ballet hasn’t moved on and isn’t speaking to us today. For me it can feel like something archaic, like a piece of history preserved.
“But I’m just trying to reach a different audience with my Nutcracker! I want the kind of people that might go to the cinema or go see a musical, the kind who wouldn’t normally go to the ballet.
“Characters like the gobstoppers (represented by a gang of coloured helmet-and-boot wearing lads) are in there to win over different people, they’re in there to win over the lads and it works in the main – though quite a few girls like them too. But we’ve introduced sections which will appeal to everyone and please everyone.
“And so far, on the latest tour, it’s getting a great response. We had a lot of school parties in at a performance in Birmingham not so long ago and that was fantastic, all clapping and cheering. That’s when you know you’ve actually achieved what you set out to achieve.
“Funnily enough in the regions you get a much better response. In London, audiences tend to sit on their hands and say: ‘Right, impress me!’ but out on the road in other cities they tend to be there for a good night out and so are more up for taking part.”
Ironically the stop-off in Yorkshire this spring sees the show come full circle. Nutcracker! was actually born out of Leeds, the base of Opera North who originally commissioned Bourne to do his first radical interpretation of the ballet.
And from that hit he went on to create the now world-famous version of Swan Lake which gave birth to a string of subsequent dance blockbusters for the choreographer.
“After the success of Nutcracker! I was able to go to the Arts Council to gain funding for Swan Lake, and without that I may never have done it. So it was a very brave move on the part of Opera North and one which, naturally, I’m eternally grateful for.”
April 3 to 7, The Alhambra, Morley Street, Bradford, 7.30pm, Wed mat 2pm, Sat mat 2.30pm, £12.50 to £33.50, Tel. 01274 432000
www.bradford-theatres.co.uk
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