THERE is rich magic running through the Brewhouse Christmas show this year, and it seems to emanate from the mysterious rhynes and mumps around the county town, which can be surrounded in fast-rising water almost without warning, turning it into a different land.

Sound a bit “woo-woo”? – well, maybe. Writer and director Sasha Wilson has gone back to the Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann 1816 story for her inspiration. The German Romantic author was a master of fantasy and Gothic horror, but over the years the image of the Sugar Plum Fairy (it’s all in the name!) and Tchaikovsky’s ever-astonishing music, have overwhelmed the very dark side of Clara’s tale. It all starts with the need for truth, and that couldn’t be more relevant in these days that they are already calling the Post Truth Era.

In this clever retelling, the familiar “ballet” story is skillfully dissected and re-aligned. On-stage MD Callum Patrick Hughes has composed new folk-influenced music, giving each character a personal theme, and that joins Pyotr Ilyich’s highlights as the story unfolds.

It all starts at Lady Euwella’s Christmas party, an event she has planned for introducing her daughter Clara to a wealthy aristocrat, and marriage is on mother’s horizon. Clara, immersed in books, has no wish to marry, and would much rather spend time with Frank the lovely stable boy. Without the arrival of Euwella’s sister Rowena, who knows what might have happened.

Theatre, they say, is about suspension of disbelief, and this spellbinding show invites the audience into another world of myths and legends based in the timeless realities of human nature and its possibilities.

The cast of five, augmented at each performance by one of two teams from the Brewhouse Youth Ensemble, take the audience on an enchanted journey, where good really does triumph over evil, lessons are learned and love wins the day – the essence of the Christmas message.

Watch out for The Rat Queen’s battle with the Nutcracker Prince, as the charismatic Elizabeth Marsh and local favourite Tomas Baines exuberantly demonstrate their combat skills. Nell Baker’s earnest and relatable Clara wins everyone’s heart, and Rhiannon Neads has just the right sense of fun, intrinsic goodness and persuasive powers to entrap the whole audience in her schemes. Dan Wheeler, well known on local stages, makes a delightfully foppish aristocrat, with a nod to one of Somerset’s own!

This might not be a show for the under-fives, as there are moments of true darkness, but it is spectacularly dressed and lit, delivering the message of a favourite tale with excitement, joy … and no preaching. It is on until 28th December.

GP-W

 

Photographs by Jack Offord