Local dancer Aaron Sillis returns to Norwich to perform in Nutcracker! During 1995 and 1996 he appeared as one of the children in Norwich Theatre Royal’s Christmas production of Peter Pan. He attended the Central School of Dancing and Performing Arts in Norwich and then went on to forge a career as a professional dancer. Bourne Identity
Matthew Bourne has achieved worldwide artistic and critical success for his innovative new versions of classic ballets. These include Swan Lake, which was performed at Norwich Theatre Royal in March 1996 and again in December 1999, Cinderella and The Car Man, which came to Norwich Theatre Royal in July 2000. His now legendary Swan Lake won over 25 international awards, played two seasons in London’s West End and culminated in a Tony Award-winning season on Broadway. For musical theatre he choreographed Oliver! and My Fair Lady for which he won the 2002 Oliver Award for Best Musical Choreography. Transformation The scene is set on a bleak Christmas Eve at Dr Dross’ Dickensian orphanage, where a young girl named Clara is staying. Life in the orphanage is hard and Dr Dross and his wife mistreat the children. Clara seeks escape and uses her magical dolls to tear down the building. "I saw the Nutcracker to be a dummy as I thought of its mouth moving like a nutcracker - and also find them pretty scary as they almost have a life of their own," said Bourne.
She is transported through a shimmering ice-skating wonderland to meet the spectacular candy folk of Sweetieland as she searches for her heart’s desire, a very special boy dressed in white. "All the kids that see it love it because it's such good fun, but it's multi-layered and the majority of people who come to see it are adult.
Matthew Bourne |
I like the fact that it is a darker Christmas and not the plush jolly one that is in the conventional ballet, because then the feeling of breaking out into fantasy is greater as its breaking out from a darker world into a lighter world. Sometimes you don't know what you've got until you put it in front of an audience, and the enthusiasm for the show from the audience has been just incredible," Bourne added. Nutcracker! is designed by Anthony Ward whose recent work includes Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the London Palladium. His amazing costumes and scenery evoke the full magic of this production and have received critical acclaim. Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! is full of his trademark wit, pathos and magical theatricality, don't miss it! | 
With any project there's one or two things that you really want to do and that's going to crack it, With the Nutcracker! it was the darker Christmas and setting the first part in an orphanage. The Drosselmeyer figure is turned into Dr Dross who runs the orphanage and has the spoilt brat children, Fritz and Sugar.
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