Past Reviews

Regional Reviews: Albuquerque/Santa Fe

The Real Nut: The True Story of the Nutcracker
Aux Dog Theatre Nob Hill
Review by Dean Yannias

Also see Rob's reviews of Tuesdays with Morrie and Peter Pan, Dean's review of My Three Angels, and Stephanie's review of Wish Upon a Star: Unauthorized Intimate Reflections with Walt Disney


Jaime Pardo and Henry Sebastian Bender
Photo by VJ Liberatori
There are two good reasons to see The Real Nut at the Aux Dog Theatre this season. The first is that you can get the backstory for Tchaikovsky's ballet without actually having to read the E.T.A. Hoffman story. The second is the endearing performance by Jaime Pardo, who seems to be having as much fun telling us the story as we are having listening to him.

Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is a fantasy tale that takes place on Christmas Eve, when Marie receives a nutcracker as a gift from her godfather Drosselmeier. Later that night, the Nutcracker comes alive, and he and Marie do battle with the Mouse King. (This is in the ballet's first act. The second act of the ballet, in the Land of Sweets, has almost nothing to do with the original story.) What's missing in the ballet is the long flashback narrated by Drosselmeier, in which he explains to Marie how a young man in another realm was turned into the Nutcracker. The poor boy, just as he was about to become a prince, inadvertently stepped on the Mouse Queen. Just before dying, she cursed him and turned him into a thing with a big head and a big mouth. He can only be made human again by someone who loves him despite his off-putting appearance (this seems to be a staple of fairy tales). The multi-headed Mouse King is the son of the Mouse Queen, and he shows up at Marie's house seeking revenge on the Nutcracker. It's a crazy story, and there's a lot more to it that I haven't revealed, including, in this telling, a good deal about making sausages. Tchaikovsky and his choreographers were wise to ignore much of it.

This production is an adaptation by Barry Simon and Paul Hansen. It's directed by Mr. Simon, and there are only two actors. One is the Storyteller, well-played by Jaime Pardo, who narrates and voices many different characters. The other is the Puppeteer, played by Henry Sebastian Bender, who is always masked, either as Drosselmeier or the Mouse King. Henry also does some backlit shadow puppetry, Balinese-style, that has potential but is pretty basic. Henry is a fairly young actor, and does not have a menacing enough presence or voice to creep us out in either of his roles. Some creepiness, a la the Brothers Grimm, is a requisite of Germanic fairy tales.

An original score by Peter Davison is lovely and evocative. The set by Sue Roden, VJ Liberatori, and Kyle King is excellent, as is the lighting by Kyle King. Jaime, as I mentioned, is very entertaining and has good rapport with the audience. Much of the production is geared toward children, and it would be even more enjoyable if there were several kids in the audience to join in the audience participation moments.

I never get tired of hearing the music from the ballet, but the story never made much sense to me. I think you'll appreciate it quite a bit more after seeing The Real Nut.

The Real Nut: The True Story of the Nutcracker by Barry Simon and Paul Hansen, adapted from the E.T.A. Hoffmann story, is being presented at the Aux Dog Theatre Nob Hill, 3011 Monte Vista Blvd NE in Albuquerque (just north of Central Avenue) through December 18, 2016. Performance times and ticket prices vary by the day of the week, so check the schedule at www.auxdog.com. Running time is about an hour and 15 minutes, no intermission.