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WE TALK TO MATTHEW BOURNE ABOUT THE CREATION OF NEWADVENTURES’ NUTCRACKER! 

Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker is now 110 years old. Why does it remain so

popular? Well it’s about growing up and it’s about first love and these are themes that we canall relate to. They are particularly relevant to this production, which casts adultperformers as a group of very needy young orphans. It’s also a touching coming ofage story told through the dreams, and nightmares, of a particular young girl, Clara.The classical Nutcracker has also become a Christmas tradition, particularly forMothers and their young dancing school daughters; it’s often the first ballet that manypeople see. It can though, be a difficult story to follow and a bore for the men of thefamily. I’ve tried to tell a story for all the family. Adults, kids, girls and boys should allfind something to thrill them and touch them in Clara’s adventure.  I would also like to think that the main reason that Nutcracker has retained itsperennial appeal is because of Tchaikovsky’s incredible score. Act One contains

some of his most engaging and, at times, profound story-telling music and Act Twohas one glorious melody after another. After 110 years it retains it’s mystery, magicand the power to transport us to another world.

 Your first production of Nutcracker! was for Opera North in 1992 as part of thework’s centenary celebrations. Why have you chosen to revisit the piece now?  It’s a production that is very fondly remembered by those that saw it and those thatperformed in it. It was the first full-evening story ballet that I had the chance tochoreograph and started me on an unexpected journey, creating new and alternativeproductions of other classic works (Highland Fling, La Sylphide, Swan Lake,Cinderella, The Car Man). When Nicholas Payne asked me and my company to take

it on, it was certainly not something that I would have ever contemplated. After all, wewere a small touring company of six dancers, so a large-scale classical ballet wasnot really a realistic option! It didn’t take me long to realise, though, that this was a

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gift and a challenge that couldn’t be passed up. The experience of creating it was avery happy one. With only five weeks rehearsal before an opening at the 1992Edinburgh Festival, the ideas had to come fast, by necessity. Somehow it all workedout and it was brought back for two Christmas seasons at Sadler's Wells in 1993 and1994. It has not been seen since, and many of the audiences that became aware ofmy work through the West End and touring productions of shows like Swan Lake (which premiered at Sadler's Wells in 1995) have not had the chance to see it. Theoriginal production had great irreverence, eccentricity and youthful charm. In takinganother look at it, I don’t want to lose  that, but I do feel that I have learnt a lot aboutnon-verbal story telling in the ten years since it was made, and I have a wonderfulnew generation of dancers to work with. Happily, though, we still have five dancers inthe current company who appeared in the original production  –  Scott Ambler,Saranne Curtin, Isabel Mortimer, Etta Murfitt and Emily Piercy – though only Etta andSaranne dance their original roles as Clara and Sugar.

In most classical productions the piece begins at a very heavily populated andextremely wealthy Christmas party. An enormous Christmas tree usually actsas the centrepiece and many luxurious gifts are given. Your production begins

in a very bleak Dickensian Orphanage where the children are experiencing avery different kind of Christmas. Why did you choose to do this? 

I have always felt that the Christmas Party that opens most productions of Nutcrackerrepresented a fantasy in itself for most audiences. Therefore, when we are

transported into Clara’s fantasy world we have r eally just gone from one idyllicfantasy to another. Martin Duncan and I had an instinct that we would feel the

transformation that much more if the Christmas Party that begins the piece was lessopulent and more bittersweet. We came up with the notion of an awful Dickensian

Orphanage, enjoying the annual Christmas Eve visit of the Institute’s Governors. DrDross and his wife, who run the orphanage, contrive to create a pleasant Christmasatmosphere for the benefit of the visitors, only to snatch the Governors' gifts back

from the children as soon as they leave and before Christmas day has even begun.Clara is, of course, one of the Orphans and the Nutcracker boy is a fellow orphan on

whom she has a young girls crush. Fritz and Sugar are the Dross’ awful spoiltchildren who terrorise the other children. So the basis for the whole story developed

out of this grim and fearful place. I should say, though,hat as well as having thisbittersweet quality it is also very funny and when the Orphans eventually revolt and

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escape from the clutches of Dr Dross you want to cheer them on!

The famous “Snowflakes” sequence which ends Act One is transformed into aglorious “Ice-Skating” extravaganza in your staging. What was the inspiration

for this? There are certain things that every production of Nutcracker should deliver – the

growing Christmas Tree, the transformation of the Nutcracker into a young man andthe falling of snow during the “snowflakes” sequence. Everyone feels a sense ofchildlike pleasure when snow begins to fall and I wanted to try and capture thatsense of pure joy seen through the eyes of the orphan children. So, rather than

depict the snowflakes themselves, as in the classical version, I have the Orphansskating across a frozen pond as an exhilarating expression of their newfound

freedom. The idea, however, came not from Torvill and Dean, much as I love them,but from the 30’s movie skating star, Sonje Henie. For me she is the perfect image ofPrincess Sugar and Anthony Ward certainly found inspiration in her many and varied

skating ensembles.

One of the highlights of the Petipa/Ivanov original is always the suite of ntionaldnces that are staged for Clara’s edification in The Land of The Sweets. I believe

that you have created some new characters? One of the pleasures of creating these characters was to link them with their orphanagecounterparts. In Clara’s imagination her friends become the fluffy Marshmallow girls, the

yobby Gobstopper boys, the vain Liquorice Allsort trio and the lewd and sticky

Knickerbocker Glory! Her best friends, the twins, become her heavenly helpers, TheCupids. Dr and Mrs Dross transform into the gluttonous rulers of Sweetieland, King

Sherbet and Queen Candy, and their bratish children, Sugar and Fritz, grow up into theglamorous Princess Sugar and saucy Prince Bon Bon. Everything is edible in

Sweetieland and its inhabitants are judged not by how they look but by how they taste!

How will this production differ from the production that was last seen at Sadler'sWells in 1994? 

This is very much a new production. It stays pretty close to the 1992 scenario written byMartin Duncan and myself, however, the show has been substantially re-choreographedand Anthony Ward has taken a fresh look at his memorable designs. In fact, our aim hasbeen to take a fresh look at every aspect of the show whilst retaining the innocence and

charm of the original production. Ten years on I find Tchaikovsky’s music more and moreprofound, its magic turns us all into kids again.