The magic of Christmas is realised this festive season as family classic The Nutcracker takes to the stage in a magic new production in Halesworth.
After their award-winning Arabian Nights, Story Pocket Theatre Story, the company devoted to bringing both classic and original children's stories to the stage, bring this colourful and magical Christmas story to The Cut in Halesworth.
It is a production that mixes live action and puppets and is bursting with imagination and make-believe bringing their classic story into life for all the family.
It's Christmas and when Clara is given a wooden nutcracker in the shape of a handsome Prince, little does she know that she and her brother Fritz are about to be drawn into a great adventure.
The Mouse Queen has stolen the magic of the Christmas Tree star and the Land of Make Believe is in danger.
The children and the toys must join in battle against the rotten royal rodent to save the magic of Christmas and restore the Prince to the throne.
But first, Clara and Fritz must learn how to believe...
The award-winning children's theatre company and their talented trio of actors, Nigel Munson, Oliver Gyani and Eve Winters will be presenting this Christmas classic.
Adapted by Jenifer Toksvig with music by David Perkins, this fun-filled show is based on The Nutcracker and the Mouse King written in 1816 by E. T. A. Hoffmann in which young Marie Stahlbaum's favorite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls.
In 1892, the Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov famously turned Alexandre Dumas's adaptation of the story into the ballet The Nutcracker, which became one of Tchaikovsky's most famous compositions, and perhaps the most popular ballet in the world.
Hoffman's tale is rooted in the tradition of wooden nutcrackers springing to life back to the folk tales of Bohemia, Poland and Muscovy. It was on this folklore that he drew in his Nutcracker and Mouse King, a macabre exploration of wide-eyed childlike imagination pitted against the bourgeois values of 19th century Bavaria, which reshaped the tale.
Story Pocket Theatre's version is much less darker, transforming it into a colourful and magical Christmas story for all the family. It is most suitable for little ones aged three plus and their families.
The company certainly know what they are doing having won the coveted Three Weeks Editors' Choice Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for its outstanding contribution to children's theatre and the Primary Times Children's Choice Award.
Co-director Adam Fletcher-Forde said: 'Our aim is to entertain the whole family with our stories: of course the children, but also the grown-ups who bring them along to the theatre. We're so pleased to be getting out on the road and sharing these wonderful stories with as wide an audience as possible.'
It promises to be a feast of fun, adventure, magic and, of course, beautiful storytelling.
• The Nutcracker, The Cut, Halesworth, until December 31, 2pm, £9 (£8 cons), £6 children, £25 family, 0300 3033211, www.newcut.org
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