The Nutcracker

For Christmas, young Marie Stahlbaum’s godfather gives her a toy—a wooden Nutcracker. That night, she witnesses a real battle when hordes of rustling, squeaking mice, led by the Mouse King, appear out of nowhere in her room. The gray army wages war against the toys. And the brave Nutcracker leads the living dolls into battle. Is this all a true story? Or did the girl have a dream in which dreams, fears, imagination, and premonitions are strangely intertwined?

Contrary to popular belief, the Chekhov Theatre’s “The Nutcracker” will not only be for children. And while its creators carefully preserve the fairytale and magical atmosphere established by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, the spirit of genuine emotions and the struggle between good and real, not merely toy-like, evil will become the leitmotifs of the production.

This is the story of a child growing up before the audience’s eyes. It’s about a teenager with a vivid imagination who tries to assert his right to his own vision of the world. And it’s about adults who struggle to embrace the rich fantasy world of young individuals.

“The Nutcracker, or the Mouse King” is a Christmas fairy tale by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann, written in 1816. The story was first published in the collection “Children’s Fairy Tales.” But just a few years later, the author included “The Nutcracker” in his book for adults, “The Serapion Brothers.” Since then, the work has been translated into many languages, and Hoffmann’s story has been adapted into a ballet by Pyotr Tchaikovsky with a libretto by Marius Petipa.