Dance
The Nutcracker, Theatre Royal, Glasgow
Mary Brennan
FIVE STARS
After premiering on the wide expanses of the Festival Theatre stage in Edinburgh, this re-staging of the late Peter Darrell's Nutcracker begins its seasonal tour in Glasgow - and, like yet another sleight of hand trick in Drosselmeyer's magic repertoire, the whole production doesn't just fit snugly into the smaller dimensions of the Theatre Royal, it looks (and sounds) even better. There's now a greater intimacy in the family party where the seeds of little Clara's adventure are scattered, like cunning clues to her midnight-hour encounters. Look closely, for instance, at the dolls her little friends receive - like her own Nutcracker, they'll come alive and dance when she reaches the realm of the Sugar Plum Fairy.
Lez Brotherston's swooshy, sparkly new designs (mostly) follow Philip Prowse's original responses to the dream-scape logic of Darrell's scenario, where a little girl's imagination makes fantastical sense of all the party excitement. If Clara's dream seems to come true, Christopher Harrison's certainly has now! Injury kept him off-stage in Edinburgh, but he's back and - having been one of the children in the 1990's, before the production was moth-balled - he fulfils a long-standing yen to be Nutcracker Prince with a lovely melding of easy athleticism and a tender, smiling courtesy to his partners, including Clara (Amy Pollock). The rest of the casting is much as it was in Edinburgh, early wobbles have calmed, while Eve Mutso (Snow Queen) and Sophie Martin (Sugar Plum Fairy) continue to make artlessly light work of technically demanding choreography. Erik Cavalleri has a mischievous twinkle and graceful flamboyance as Drosselmeyer - a true showman, in a production worth garlanding with superlatives. Aberdeen and Inverness have a treat in store!
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