Reviews

This is the theatrical equivalent of a wicked Christmas trifle with lots of brandy in it. A delicious dessert that might look like it’s kid friendly on the outside, but is most definitely only for the consumption of grown ups.

There were lots of bright colours and different flavours to taste in this pantomime, best sampled one at time rather than mixing them up on the same plate.

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.