Reviews

Although The Nutcracker was first produced by the Imperial Ballet at the Marinsky Theatre in Russia in 1892, its popular staging at Christmas dates from when the New York City Ballet mounted a lavish production of it in 1954. Since then it has become an annual tradition throughout major American ballet companies who use the proceeds of this reliable blockbuster to subsidize the rest of the season.

Screwtape (Yannick Lawry) is a Senior Devil, a bureaucrat responsible for the administration of junior devils’ mission to turn human souls away from ‘The Enemy’ (God – the Christian One) and land them safely in Hell.  But he seems to spend all of his time on replying to letters from his incompetent devil nephew, Wormwood, with forceful (here, very forceful) advice on how to capture the soul of his human target, known as ‘the Patient’.  His secretary cum manservant, Toadpipe (George Zhao), serves tea, fetches slippers, retrieves Wormwood

The ‘Savoy operas’ of W.S. Gilbert and A.S. Sullivan - particularly The Mikado - have endured down the generations as bright, witty, colourful entertainments, and will probably continue to do so as long as they are subject to quality productions that preserve the ageless aspects of the text while being prepared to modernise when necessary. This one should fit the bill for fans, being extremely well-sung, skilfully designed, and impressively costumed, with musicians (under MD Brian Chatterton, OAM) as accomplished as they are supportive.

The Kransky Sisters are a macabre looking trio from Esk in rural Queensland. They travel Australia in their Morris Major entertaining with songs they have learnt from listening to the ‘wireless’. This time around we are privileged to share Christmas songs and stories.