BALLET: NUTCRACKER
- Author:
- Amelia G
- Posted:
- Monday, 4 May 2009
With matryoschka dolls, red flags, snow, royal opulence, folk dance, vodka and revolution, much of Russia remains in Graeme Murphy’s retelling of Nutcracker in sweltering suburban Melbourne, created to mark The Australian Ballet’s 30th birthday in 1992.
But such a radical reworking of one of the world’s most well-known and most performed classical ballets was risky business, coming from a drive for ballet to exist as an evolving art form rather than a museum artifact.
“It’s a story ballet, and one of the weaknesses of Nutcracker has been that it’s a stupid story,” Murphy once bluntly stated in an interview, “I’m trying to fix that.”
Renowned for giving his dancers unusual depth of character, under his hands Nutcracker became a beautifully plotted cross-generational story about memory, love, loss, the passing of time, and death. It also became a ballet very much about ballet, taking us onto the stage, backstage, into the life of a star dancer, and into the true history of how ballet came to Australia.
From childhood fantasy, white Christmas, fairies and a European never-never land, under Murphy’s hands (along with his creative associate Janet Vernon) Nutcracker was transformed into a modern, believable, grown-up and uniquely Australian story, retaining Tchaikovsky’s immortal and quintessentially Russian score.
While we usually only encounter ballerinas on stage during the narrow prime of their careers, here we see Clara as a child learning her art in Imperial Russia, as a fully fledged artist touring the world and arriving in Melbourne, and as a frail elderly woman reminiscing on her rich life from her bedroom.
The set design is remarkable and constantly evolving, with only the world tour sequence bordering on twee, and the dancers are in top form, with highlight performances from the lithesome 12-year-old Josephine Frick and the marvelous and modest principal artist Adam Bull, whose legs once again threaten steal the show.
Until 18 May. Sydney Opera House. $30-155, 1300 369 741 or australianballet.com.au
Rachel Rawlins and Kevin Jackson. Photo by Tim Richardson.
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Story posted on Monday, 4 May 2009, filed under Theatre & Performance. Follow responses via the RSS feed.
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