Varna International Ballet The Nutckracker Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh 19th January 2024 Review
Varna International Ballet were at the Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh tonight with their production of The Nutcracker. This is the second of three different ballets that the company are performing over three consecutive nights – last night Thursday 18th January “Sleeping Beauty”, and tomorrow Saturday 20th January “Swan Lake”.
Founded in 1947, this Bulgarian opera and ballet company now tours globally with a truly international team of dancers, choreographers and stage directors. Sadly though for this performance there was no press information on the production, so this review will have to be a lot more generic than I usually like it to be.
As a company, Varna are on very safe ground with the three ballets that they are performing in Edinburgh as they are perhaps amongst the best known and most popular in the classical ballet repertoire, and this one with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky has become a traditional night out to the theatre for many people.
The story is very simple, a group of children and their parents, entertained by the magician Drosselmayer and his troupe of performers on Christmas Eve receive their presents. A young girl Clara (also known as Marie or Masha) takes a liking to another present, a wooden soldier nutcracker. Here, we are in the world of a very traditional Nutcracker and the girl is called Marie and Drosselmayer is Marie’s Godfather. Falling asleep with her Nutcracker doll, Marie dreams of a fantasy land where the dolls and other presents come to life.
With three different ballets over three consecutive nights, it was obvious that stage-sets would be minimal, if any, and here Varna rely on that old format of illustrated backdrops. Here though, with the update of a little bit of modern technology the backdrop graphics are animated in places and allow at the beginning for some real surprises on stage. Other on stage surprises are created by some very traditional illusionist stage tricks and together everything works very well and gives this production the feel of an older and very traditional ballet.
This production of The Nutcracker may have a slightly different feel to other productions that tour and have young children in the role of Marie and her brother, but that is a relatively recent addition to the Nutcracker format. Here Drosselmayer also plays a far more prominent role throughout the ballet. All of the classic ingredients are here though and “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” remains a timeless combination of dance and music. The duet between the Sugar Plum Fairy and The Prince (to the music of Andante maestoso -Pas de Deux), like the rest of this performance, was performed in a very traditional classical ballet style of choreography.
For a touring company with a schedule like Varna there are also a lot of different costumes in this production and many of them are imaginatively designed for this version of The Nutcracker. So much of the look and feel of this production is down to the very experienced stage manager and choreographer, Sergei Bobrov.
Varna International Ballet may not have the luxury of building elaborate stage sets for a one night production of a ballet, but what they do with the stage space is imaginative and the most important elements of all are always there, the dance, the music and the choreography.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Founded in 1947, this Bulgarian opera and ballet company now tours globally with a truly international team of dancers, choreographers and stage directors. Sadly though for this performance there was no press information on the production, so this review will have to be a lot more generic than I usually like it to be.
As a company, Varna are on very safe ground with the three ballets that they are performing in Edinburgh as they are perhaps amongst the best known and most popular in the classical ballet repertoire, and this one with music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky has become a traditional night out to the theatre for many people.
The story is very simple, a group of children and their parents, entertained by the magician Drosselmayer and his troupe of performers on Christmas Eve receive their presents. A young girl Clara (also known as Marie or Masha) takes a liking to another present, a wooden soldier nutcracker. Here, we are in the world of a very traditional Nutcracker and the girl is called Marie and Drosselmayer is Marie’s Godfather. Falling asleep with her Nutcracker doll, Marie dreams of a fantasy land where the dolls and other presents come to life.
With three different ballets over three consecutive nights, it was obvious that stage-sets would be minimal, if any, and here Varna rely on that old format of illustrated backdrops. Here though, with the update of a little bit of modern technology the backdrop graphics are animated in places and allow at the beginning for some real surprises on stage. Other on stage surprises are created by some very traditional illusionist stage tricks and together everything works very well and gives this production the feel of an older and very traditional ballet.
This production of The Nutcracker may have a slightly different feel to other productions that tour and have young children in the role of Marie and her brother, but that is a relatively recent addition to the Nutcracker format. Here Drosselmayer also plays a far more prominent role throughout the ballet. All of the classic ingredients are here though and “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” remains a timeless combination of dance and music. The duet between the Sugar Plum Fairy and The Prince (to the music of Andante maestoso -Pas de Deux), like the rest of this performance, was performed in a very traditional classical ballet style of choreography.
For a touring company with a schedule like Varna there are also a lot of different costumes in this production and many of them are imaginatively designed for this version of The Nutcracker. So much of the look and feel of this production is down to the very experienced stage manager and choreographer, Sergei Bobrov.
Varna International Ballet may not have the luxury of building elaborate stage sets for a one night production of a ballet, but what they do with the stage space is imaginative and the most important elements of all are always there, the dance, the music and the choreography.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com