Ballet Review
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Nutcracker, Chisinau National Ballet. New Theatre to 14th Feb 2004 The Land of Sweets, a realm of fantastical illusion and magical adventure, is a place we'd all like to be. Under the spell of The Chisinau National Ballet, this teleportation becomes entirely conceivable, as adults metamorphose into children, and children delve ever-deeper into their wildest dreams. Yuri Grigorovich's Nutcracker urges every personality in the theatre, young or old, to penetrate this candy-covered world of all that is surreal. It is Christmas Day and, in a small town in Germany, Fritz and Marie marvel at their most riveting gift, the magnificent Nutcracker, bestowed upon them by their mysterious godfather, Drosselmeyer. For Nutcracker is more than a doll who cracks nuts. He is a trigger of imaginative power, beckoning Marie to the Kingdom of the Christmas Trees, a land where dolls are living people and mice are evil kings. As his wooden body flops, so Marie's grip on what is real simultaneously disintegrates. She is a wide-eyed child, and Nutcracker is her prince of fantasy. For 120 minutes, nothing is as it seems. Tchaikovsky's score is bewitching, aiding in the transcendence of reality. From a composer totally in sympathy with the rhythms and emotions of dance, comes the highest peal of the bell and the lowest bellow of the tuba, the orchestra doing full justice to his breathtaking breadth of musical register. The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, the high-point of the evening's theatrical lavishness, is instantly memorable, its dramatic grace contrasting with the humorous mechanistic routines of the dolls, and the frantic footwork of the malicious mice. The leading dancers are particularly mesmorising; Nadezhda Schepachiova, who plays Marie, is the epitome of elegance and more. After all, this production is not your typical ballet. It is more than a few pirouettes and the odd demi-pliée. The set and costumes are dazzling, and vividly empower Grigorovich's choreography. His command of post-modern pastiche, including Spanish, Chinese and Arabian dances, waltzes and pseudo-waltzes, marches and mock-marches, impresses the audience from beginning to end. We are inextricably entwined in the splendour of make-believe. Imagination is the ballet's driving force. Marie's sojourn with her prince is not real, but is a dream, and we leave her where she began, as a little girl clutching her Nutcracker doll in front of the Christmas tree. And we, also, are back where we began, as inhabitants of a twenty-first century world where everything is scientific, technological, researched, black and white. Grigorovich's Nutcracker is certainly not this. Even in the symphony of childhood, there lurks a darkness, personified by the Mouse King and his nocturnal combat. Nutcracker depicts Marie's psychological struggle between Manichean forces, her subconscious forcing her to venture into a dream-world where good battles evil and wins. Or does it? Is she happy to leave her prince and to return to reality? Do we wish to leave the theatre to return to the workplace on Monday morning? No, we do not. The Chisinau National Ballet's Nutcracker, as a means of escapism, is an experience in which the whole family should indulge. So indulge, until Saturday 14th.
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