Nutcracker – The story of Clara: The Australian Ballet
From the glamorous ballroom of the Russian Tsar to the dusty summer streets of Melbourne, Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker is a romantic tale of love and loss, played out across time and distance. Loosely based on the real-life experiences of numerous Russian dancers who came to call Australia home, it’s far more accessible than the fairytale traditional version.
Wonderfully performed by Marilyn Jones, Clara the Elder is a former ballerina now living in a dilapidated Melbourne flat. On Christmas Eve, her Russian friends visit and reminisce, sharing vodka and watching grainy films of the young Clara dancing. The party scene is long but well characterised, both by the mature artists who play the lovable émigrés and also by Adam Bull as the well-meaning young doctor who comes to check on his patient.
Exhausted and unwell, elderly Clara has nightmarish visions of giant rats swarming up the walls, just one of the traditional Nutcracker elements sprinkled throughout the piece. But in Murphy’s skilful hands, the rats become violent Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution, a link which is underlined and clarified by historical film snippets projected over the action.
As Clara’s dream-self returns to her youth, theatrical magic transforms her into a young woman dancing with her beloved. The corps de ballet become snowflakes, swirling as they flutter and fall in gorgeous group sequences, taking Clara all the way back to her childhood in Russia.
Practicing under the strict tutelage of her ballet master, the role of Clara the Child is performed with ease by Mia Heathcote, daughter of former dancer Steven Heathcote. Time slips between past and present as we see Clara become a ballerina with the Imperial Ballet.
Amber Scott does very well as Clara the Ballerina, growing into the role as the piece progresses. She dances the classical scenes with precision and grace, but is at her best in the most dramatic moments. In the complex yet stunningly beautiful farewell pas de deux, Scott and Bull are passionate lovers being torn apart by circumstance. Clara watches helplessly as her Beloved Officer goes off to war, and when he is shot, her agony is palpable.
With her homeland at war, Clara escapes with the Ballet, touring the world. Here, Murphy makes excellent use of the Spanish, Chinese and Egyptian variations in Tchaikovsky’s score to depict foreign lands. As always, Kristian Fredrikson’s designs for sets and costumes are brilliant, varied and evocative, perfectly suited to the choreography.
At last, Clara arrives in Australia, where she gives her final performance. As the applause fades, so does the dream, and the three incarnations of Clara become one. It seems that finally she is at peace.
Graeme Murphy’s Nutcracker is good on so many levels, it’s very hard to fault. Resonant, honest, romantic and beautiful, with fantastic dancing and a satisfying storyline, it’s all that you could ask for in a modern ballet.
