This isn’t a sponsored post.
BrumHour is invited to share, experience and review Birmingham Royal Ballet productions throughout the year.
For Brum Radio’s Interval Theatre, Dave Massey spoke to Alys Shee, First Artist at Birmingham Royal Ballet and playing The Snow Fairy in this online performance of The Nutcracker.
By Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker Online
Original Choreography by Peter Wright, Lev Ivanov and Vincent Redmon, Adapted by David Bintley, Production by Carlos Acosta and Sean Foley.
2020 sees everyone in uncharted waters and this production of The Nutcracker has jumped theatres across central Birmingham from its home at Birmingham Hippodrome to Birmingham Rep then changed from a socially distanced audience to an online audience. It is still magical!
After being gifted a large wooden nutcracker at a Christmas party, Clara (Karla Doorbar) finds herself shrunk down into the magical world of The Nutcracker.
There are additional changes to the production with Birmingham Royal Ballet now in the capable hands of Carlos Acosta the “New for 2020” director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, and Sean Foley the “New for 2020” director at Birmingham Rep. Whilst I’ve typed these names pretty causally, Sean Foley is a hugely respected West End director and Carlos had a film about his life made and he sat on The Jonathan Ross Show chatting about his international ballet career. The changes here are to be spotted mostly in the opening and during the international section of the ballet.
I found myself dreaming of sitting in the theatre watching this, hearing the applause for the massively talented bunch of performers based right here in Birmingham and listening to the stunning music of the Royal Ballet Sinfonia.
This fully deserves to be watched around the world by as many people as possible before Christmas Eve, and whilst I know there is a place for watching productions online, on increasingly larger tv’s at home or in the cinema, the filming and choice of camera angles does mean that the experience changes for everyone watching. It becomes more intimate and more about the dancer and the characters rather than being able to spot their footwork or arm placements.
Having interviewed Jonathan Payn for Brum Radio last year, it is fantastic to see him as the sneaky Drosselmeyer here and César Morales, Momoko Hirata shine in their roles as does the whole company. I particularly looked out for Alys Shee as the magical Snow Fairy, who is interviewed at the top of the page here. This is a global, yet local, company in the fair village of Birmingham that plays home to over a million people. Hopefully in the future more productions will be available in this way without sacrificing the live theatre experience.
This online presentation comes with an introduction guide and behind the scenes interval to add a real format of the theatre experience.
An enchanting production to be watched around the world, Birmingham Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker is available to view until 2359 on Thursday 24th December 2020 but tickets must be purchased by 2359 on Monday 20th December. Book here: brb.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-nutcracker-at-the-rep-online
