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Fortnight Publications Ltd.
Aspiring ClarasAuthor(s): Judith JenningsSource: Fortnight, No. 292 (Feb., 1991), p. 32Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25552737 .
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Aspiring
Claras THE FIRST MAJOR event in Dublin's year as European City of Culture, in the
wake of Glasgow's glorious reign (Fortnight 289), gracefully transferred the crown with the Scottish Ballet's production of The Nutcracker at the
Point, Judith Jennings writes.
This version, by the late Peter Darrell, based on Ivanov's choreography, was
staged six years ago in Belfast. So it was interesting to see the interpretation of the new artistic director, the star
ballerina Galina Samsova.
The prologue was disappointing. A minute section of the vast stage was used for the party, dressed sombrely in
reds and greens?with a modest Christ mas tree, a Nutcracker of questionable
gender and none of the Dickensian
jocosity of that Belfast performance. Clara's dream was censored. The
mice, in what should have been a
fearsome battle with the tin soldiers, were too playful and the Mouse King only went one round.
Nevertheless, a pattern was evolving. Clara and her Nutcracker, now a prince, Tristan Borrer?who must have felt
embarrassed in modestly fringed silver?were transported to the land of Ice and Snow. The stage broadened into
a frozen panorama of softly falling flakes, on which the male corps de ballet landed heavily. Clara sat wide-eyed, flanked by polar bears and trilling choir as the Snow Queen and Prince merged in a fluent pas de deux.
There was a gasp when the curtain went up on act two. Sugar plums?pink, golden, orange, green, blue and yel low?were suspended across the stage.
These colours were duplicated in the exquisite costumes of the lissome soloists. Memorable were the provoca tive French dancers, the highly strung
Chinese ladies, Roddie Patrizio's bravura sailor's hornpipe and the
romantic Waltz of the Flowers. The orchestra increased the momen
tum as we came to the dramatic se
quence with the principals. Unfortu
nately, this tremendous build-up
exaggerated the Prince's uncertainty and Sugar Plum's lifts were occasionally in the balance, although Linda Packer
continued to smile bravely. Full marks, though, for lighting and
design and the final smooth transition to the velveted Victorian drawing room,
when we had to accept that it had all been an Insubstantial pageant'.
There are many criticisms of Dublin's
programme for 1991: meagre budget, hypocritical in view of the rot behind the
Georgian facades, unimaginative, unbal
anced, elitist... But The Nutcracker was
unpretentious, in the pantomime tradition, delighting the family audi ence?in particular the aspiring Claras, who clustered at the stage door in the hope of capturing some magic. The Scottish Ballet tour will take in
Belfast in March.
Not quite reaching a consistently high standard? the Scottish Ballet at the Point
/if seems like carelessness
The prospective departure of Roland Jaquarello from the Lyric Theatre in Belfast at the end of this season raises fundamental questions about the theatre and its board. ROBIN GLENDINNING thinks it's time they were answered.
THE OCCASION WAS THE opening night in November of the revival of Over The Bridge. It was all too like far too many nights at the
Lyric Theatre Belfast in the last 20 years. The reputation of Sam Thompson's play
stems from the courage of its 1960 premiere?
having been suppressed by the establishment?
and its confrontation with the then unmention
able subject of sectarianism in industry. I
remember the excitement of it, of feeling for
the first time that theatre was meant after all to
deal with the society in which I actually lived. Yet, as I watched the revival, I felt not only
that the play had dated?its construction is
crude, its characterisation stereotypical and the
denouement sentimental. It does not face up to
the issues it raises with the unblinking honesty I once thought. Why is the action recurrently
moved forward by someone looking out of a
door and describing to everyone else what he
can see? Are the sub-plots really integral or are
they self-indulgent devices to introduce a few
'Ulster characters'? Why does the writer, hav
ing created a raving bigot in an early scene, have him suddenly and incredibly change sides
when the chips are down? Why does the author
need a saintly trade unionist to be murdered, and not the obvious victim?
Thompson's subject is the failure of Irish trade unionism to deal effectively with sectar
ian violence. The play nearly faces up to this
but the martyr/saint figure allows the author to
have his cake and eat it, indulging in sentimen
tal nostalgia about his non-sectarian working class heroes while neatly sidelining the Catho
lic to a hospital bed. Why the lack of motivation for the Catholic victim?
Given the flaws in the play, the director
needed to make a big contribution. His one
innovation was a quasi-Brechtian use of songs on scaffolding. Which was quite nice, but
achieved nothing because the rest of the piece was so static?not to say statuesque. Why did
so many scenes consist almost entirely of talk
ing heads until the moment when anger flared
up and everyone was at everyone else's throat?
Why did actors and actresses so often look like
misplaced furniture, until finally finding a real
piece of furniture on which to settle?
Yet everyone else at the Lyric that night seemed to find it wonderful. The play was a
classic, I was told. The production was marvel
lous, the humour unique?only in Belfast would
you get that sort of wit. The play was as relevant
as ever, etc, etc. The run was selling out.
Perhaps all these people were right. Maybe there are perfectly good answers to my ques tions. But, if not, this production and this
reaction reveal something very serious about
Belfast theatre and its audience. For what went
on in the Lyric that night was not professional theatre: it was 'church-hall' theatre.
Church-hall theatre is a useful and pleasur able activity in which locals go to see their
fellow locals perform. The atmosphere is rightly
self-congratulatory: it is, after all, primarily a
social occasion. Local humour and local ac
cents are sufficient to make the rafters roar. Far
too often in its history, the Lyric has been a very
expensive church hall.
In its 20-odd years the Lyric has failed to educate an audience. The undoubted, but infre
quent, successes have not been enough. There
must be a period of five to ten years of consis
tently high-class productions to win an audi
ence, to hold it, to be able to make demands on
it. This requires an artistic director of vision, drive and talent?and security of employment.
32 FEBRUARY FORTNIGHT
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