Review: Northern Ballet's The Nutcracker a festive delight

The Northern Ballet Nutcracker, a much-loved Christmas classic, is at Norwich Theatre Royal this week as part of its national tour.

Set to Tchaikovsky’s enduring score, audiences will recognise familiar tunes such as Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Dance of the Reed Flutes and Waltz of the Flowers - making those who have never seen it before feel right at home.

Perfect to kick off the festive season - The Nutcracker follows a young girl, Clara (Julie Nunès), whose family throws a party on Christmas Eve.

Clara's mysterious and magical uncle Drosselmeyer arrives at the party with gifts - a collection of life-sized dancing dolls.

Drosselmeyer (Gavin McCaig) commanded the stage as he orchestrated Clara's adventure - drawing all attention with his glittering cape and sweeping movements.

He gifts a nutcracker to Clara, who is taken with the wooden soldier.

Later that night Drosselmeyer casts a spell and Clara finds herself in the middle of a battle between the armies of the comical and mischievous Mouse King and the now-living Nutcracker (Filippo Di Vilio).

The French ballerinas performing for Clara (Image: Northern Ballet)

After the Mouse King's defeat, which resulted in laughter from the audience, Drosselmeyer turns the Nutcracker into a prince and takes the young pair into a winter wonderland.

They first meet dancing snow maidens, who glittered in the moonlight as they delicately twirled.

Clara and the Nutcracker then attend a party where they are introduced to the magical Sugar Plum Fairy (Saeka Shirai) and her Cavalier (Joseph Taylor).

The pair were a quick crowd favourite, gaining thunderous applause after each of their impressive performances.

The party dances for Clara - Arabian princes, Russian Cossacks, French ballerinas and flowers perform followed by the Sugar Plum Fairy herself.

The corps de ballet, who are on stage nearly constantly, gave new and unique life to each character they played, making it easy to forget it was the same group of dancers.

All too soon, Clara finds herself waking in her father's arms realising her adventure may have been a dream after all.

Time flew by and final bows were met with lengthy applause from an entranced audience left wanting more.

This is the perfect first ballet for younger audience members with heaps of imagination and a love for Christmas. 

The Nutracker runs at Norwich Theatre Royal until November 26.