Nutcracker

by KAREN FRICKER
the Guardian

For their 10th anniversary production, CoisCeim Dance Theatre draws from ETA Hoffmann's story to create an updated, sexualised and un-Christmassy Nutcracker. Clara (Lisa McLoughlin) is not a rich little girl but an office worker who discovers her inner ballerina through the interventions of her guardian angel, Drosselmeier (the great Irish actor Tom Hickey). The Sugar Plum Fairy is a bad witch here: the snooty boss sexually intimidating the male employee who eventually becomes Clara's nutcracker prince (Robert Jackson).