Nutcracker!

Matthew Bourne is a director and choreographer who has made his name from reinterpreting the classics; from his all-male Swan Lake to a present-day Sleeping Beauty. The winner of Tonys and Oliviers, his productions are not only popular but have won critical acclaim. Bourne crafted a mould many modern ballet companies have since emulated in creating family-friendly but irreverently humorous productions.

Twenty years on from the première of his Nutcracker! and Bourne is the establishment.  However, unlike traditionalists, who can fall back on world-class ballet if they fail to tantalise thematically, Bourne's Nutcracker! suffers not only from a dated self indulgence but poor production quality.

Foregoing the standard Christmas cheer, Bourne's Nutcracker! begins in an orphanage 'for waifs and strays'. Anthony Ward's kooky set brings this to life in neon-Dickensian style, complete with jaunty door frames and a domineering gothic Matron (Madelaine Brennan). Bourne reasons that this removes the ballet from the confines of bourgeois parlour fantasy and into a stark, bitter reality, which contrasts with the childish dreams of the second act.

His style is hardly kitchen sink though. The choreography suffers under Bourne's attempt to politicise the piece, as there's very little of what one might call 'ballet' or 'dance'. Instead there's a gawky, showy kind of physical theatre. Japes and capers, scoldings and punishments, glee and excitement at the coming of Christmas. All are animatedly well-directed, but very little is expressed through dance.

In a duet between the transformed brats Princess Sugar (Ashley Shaw) and Prince Bon-Bon (Dominic North) we get our first chunk of ballet. It's very safe stuff, supported by visual gags and innuendo and though the former is well performed, the latter has a clumsy night. In place of the traditional 'national dances', Act Two featured a parade of trussed up sweeties, drippy Cupids, leather clad bikers and an escalation in lurid set and sensibility. At one point the sweeties gyrate in unison atop a glistening cupcake. At least our heroine Clara (Hannah Vassallo) is charming and technically sound, however her choreography is dull and pedestrian.

In this production Bourne's method appears glaringly weak. The waning shock value isn't imbued through modern choreography, it comes as an overall sheen. At the centre this is a flashy, slick kind of panto, with some ballet tacked on. The Nutcracker is about generosity, transformation and imagination; Nutcracker! is trashy and ungiving. Humbug.