Irish Timeswriters review a selection of events
Sleeping Beauty
Lambert Puppet Theatre
Bernice Harrison
This magical production of the children's classic is like a lavishly illustrated storybook brought to life. The changing backdrops are beautifully painted and the puppets tell the well-loved story with charm and a great deal of humour that prompted whooping, giggling and giddy participation of the "look behind you" variety among the packed audience of mostly under-sixes.
It's a warm and simple telling of the tale, the only modern touch of having the prince (or pronce - he's French) singing a Westlife song was unnecessary, and the shortcomings of the sound system made it a little difficult to hear at times when he had to compete with a very excited audience.
The expert puppeteers Liam and Richard Lambert and Elenor Barwise played multiple characters, transmitting energy and fun through the wonderfully designed puppets. Eugene Lambert does a hilarious warm-up routine before the show, winning over the audience with quips and a song from Judge and Mr Crow, characters that have been around longer than most of the parents in the audience.
At the end, he comes back to ask the audience to tell their friends if they liked the show, and if they didn't, to shut up. This is definitely one to mention to your friends with small children.
3.30pm Dec 23rd-31st except Christmas Day; Jan 2nd-7th; Sat and Sun throughout Jan
The Nutcracker
The Point, Dublin
Christine Madden
When you see a production of The Nutcracker like this year's Perm State Ballet's, you remember why this ballet deservedly retains its perennial popularity. A well funded and resourced state ballet company such as the Perm can pull out all the stops for this Christmas classic, and the results speak ardently for themselves.
With something like 11 elaborate scene changes (eight of them in the first half), all executed within minutes or integrated into the performance, this production created a sense of almost unbearable excitement and mystery, similar to a child's experience of Christmas. A millefeuille of scrims rose and fell to create a snowy scene, a cosy 18th-century living room, Marie's bedroom and a variety of fantasy worlds into which the dancers enticed the audience.
The first half in particular excelled in eloquent charm, with Igor Soloviev (evil fairy in Sleeping Beauty) showing his versatility in playing the ambiguous yet benevolent Herr Drosselmeier, and Monica Loughman a convincingly mechanical and magical doll.
The undisputed star of the show, however, was Natalia Moiseeva, whose portrayal of Marie (or Masha), was never anything less than utterly delightful. From her childlike delight at the holiday and the nutcracker to her girlish elation at being the centre of attention in secret land of the dolls inside the Christmas tree, her performance both as a dramatic artist and a dancer was exquisite; I could have happily watched her dance the entire ballet on her own.
This version wisely jettisoned the character of Sugar Plum Fairy, with Marie performing the famous solo and the pas de deux with the gallant Nutcracker Prince (Sergei Mershin).
The fact that this Nutcracker's story actually made sense - in contrast to that of many other versions - helped retain the cohesion in the second half, when the narrative frequently becomes bland through the engaging but often ultimately senseless set pieces. Performing to a live orchestra, conducted by Valery Platonov, no fewer than 47 dancers populated the stage - one sometimes had the sense they would have preferred a larger stage to unfold their intricate choreographic patterns, and that the dancers held back with their leaps.
The audience gave the corps a resounding standing ovation, and well they should. The production pulled together the best of everything - superb dancers, expressive choreography (Vasily Vainonen), atmospheric staging (Natalia Spitsina of the Mariinsky Theatre) and enchanting and innovative costume and set design (Vyacheslav Okunev) to present perhaps the loveliest Nutcracker I've ever seen.
Pharrell
The Olympia, Dublin
Peter Crawley
A couple of years ago Pharrell Williams's influence on pop music was so huge it could be measured statistically - like a market share.
As one half of super producers the Neptunes (with Chad Hugo) he was responsible for 43 per cent of what was played on US radio. With razor-sharp productions for Britney, Justin, Kelis, Nelly, Snoop et al, the Neptunes were as unerring as they were prolific, giving pop a compelling new texture; sometimes harshly minimal but always inventive and attention-grabbing.
Never one to retreat from the spotlight, Pharrell often sang the choruses for his clients and appeared in their videos, and though he maintained a Neptunes side project - the band N*E*R*D - the question was not if he would go solo, but when.
Ambling onto the Olympia stage with languorous, liquid momentum, the now-solo Pharrell seems eager for some company. Indeed, so loud are the shrieks and squeals of approval that greet him, the concert feels like a momentous girls' night out.
Pharrell hardly discourages such attention. Pummelling through the cuts of his first solo album, the less-than-inspired In My Mind (no one could accuse him of hoarding his best material for himself), he chops up the songs - Can I Have It Like That, Raspy Shit, How Does It Feel? - into manageable bites for short attention spans, before reclaiming some of his better commissions: Snoop Dogg's Beautiful and Drop It Like it's Hot, Nelly's Hot in Herre.
It's not always a charming move: these songs were custom-made for rappers with more character than Williams can muster, his silken tones better suited to the lovelorn R&B falsettos of Baby, Number One and Frontin'.
This, too, is the Pharrell that his admirers best respond to: the man who gazes doe-eyed at almost every face in the crowd, and who is finally moved to declare after a particularly vigorous She Wants to Move, "I am not going to my hotel room by myself tonight."
Either the frustrated loverman is a fun and faintly ironic pose, or Pharrell has discovered there's a downside to going solo after all.
