Staffordshire’s New Vic announces its production of The Nutcracker: A Christmas Fairytale, a rare staging of the much-loved tale as a play, on its in-the-round stage from Friday 17 November 2023 to Saturday 27 January 2024.
New Vic Artistic Director Theresa Heskins said: “I’ve been privileged to be able to make festive shows for the New Vic which make an impact both on our audiences locally and nationally in an industry which has come to value work for children and families. Every year we make a show which we hope will ignite the imaginations of our young audiences and start to develop a lifelong passion for theatregoing; and in doing so, we stretch ourselves as theatre makers.
“The ambition to do a stage play of The Nutcracker is one I’ve treasured for some time. I want to bring together ETA Hoffman’s original story with the adaptation by Alexandre Dumas and Tchaikovsky’s music into a new play telling the story of the enchanted Nutcracker, who takes a journey up the Christmas tree to the Kingdom of Sweets to settle a score with the ferocious Mouse Queen. It’s going to be a gripping story that’s absolutely jampacked with magic, beautiful music, and Christmas sparkle.”
It is adapted by New Vic Artistic Director Theresa Heskins (Olivier Award-winning The Worst Witch; The Snow Queen, UK Theatre Awards Best Show for Children and Young People) alongside James Atherton, whose spellbinding compositions have appeared in many beloved New Vic shows including Tom, Dick and Harry (co-produced with Kenny Wax Ltd at Alexandra Palace in 2022), last Christmas’s Alice in Wonderland and the unforgettable indoor-outdoor adventure Coppelia – A Mystery.
Audiences are invited to join the inquisitive Marie as she ventures with the Nutcracker Prince through spun-sugar snowflakes, gingerbread elves and chocolate drops to the Kingdom of Sweets where toys come alive and an enchanted spell must be broken. But is it all just a dream?
The Nutcracker: A Christmas Fairytale takes to the stage at the New Vic from Friday 17 November 2023 – Saturday 27 January 2024. For more information visit newvictheatre.org.uk.
