Think of this joyful show as a cheeky nod to The Nutcracker rather than anything genuinely resembling the original. Yes, Little Bulb’s Olivier-nominated festive show – first staged at Polka last year – features a magical nutcracker toy and young siblings transported to mysterious new worlds. But there’s also a pants-wearing Mouse King, a slab of flying poo, five crooning mice and a Yoda-inspired elder rodent. This is the Nutcracker how your youngest kids might dream it and it’s a wildly imaginative and warm-hearted creation.
The action has been relocated to modern-day Wimbledon, where a grieving family face their first Christmas without mum. They’ve moved into a new house – only it’s not very new at all. The sewers are clogged up, there are mouse droppings everywhere and, worst of all, siblings Clara (Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens) and Fritz (Dominic Conway) will be sharing a bedroom.
Clare Beresford, Dominic Conway and Alexander Scott’s script – devised with help from the company – is peppered with endless inspired cheese gags (Fondu? How about fon-don’t?), and sly nods to the “big people” in the audience. There’s heaps of excellent physical comedy, a stream of very silly Christmas songs (“Last Christmas I gave you my cheeeeese”) and some expertly choreographed audience interaction. The cast manages a tricky balancing act, committing to the sorrow and shocks in the story but making the young audience feel safe, included and happy.
The script is consistently entertaining, although it does occasionally feel a little wordy in the first half. However, when the central quest kicks off – with Clara and Fritz hunting down the dastardly Mouse King – it’s utterly inspired. The story of the “Cheesy five” mice is told through a beautiful shadow puppet show, one of the endless lo-fi delights conjured up in Sam Wilde’s simple but evocative set. There are sword fights and magical shields, Pipes of Peril clogged up with monster poos and a Desert of Dust represented by a very sulky woman in a very dusty cloak. To watch this gleeful show is to feel young again, happily playing make-believe with your siblings. And what could be more Christmassy than that?
