The Hard Nut Essay -- Drama

The Hard Nut ============ The Hard Nut Is Based On The Nutcracker and Mouse King by ETA Hoffmann, the dance company they used was the Mark Morris Company and the music is by Tchaikovsky. The director of the Hard Nut has not been original, as he has used the same music from the original Nutcracker. The video is a live recording. Act 1 The opening scene starts with three people on the stage dressed as young children, they have their backs to the audience and are dressed in a black and white style, and the curtains are drawn. The curtains go up and Act One Begins. The scenery is black and white there is also a big door bigger than the characters on the stage. The three main characters on the stage are children we can tell this by the way they are acting and the facial expressions they pull. The director is dealing with gender issues a lot of the women are played by men. The dance style they are using is ballet. The huge door opens and the set changes to a living room style setting. It is around Christmas we can tell this, as there is a Christmas tree in the corner of the stage. The characters are dressed in green and red which are the colours of Christmas. In the days were the musical is set they did not have coloured televisions the television starts to go colour and the music starts to be multipurpose as if there is a fire. Throughout the play the use of humour is quite big. The three children are now obviously in their Christmas suits the oldest girl showing off all dressed up whilst the other is quiet and dressed in pink different from the rest, she is overlooked by people very sensible and very shy. Everybody on the stage pairs up and are dancing in duets apart from the youngest child who is in the pink, she is being ignored but is trying hard to involve herself. The girl then notices a man coming into the house she makes a fuss and everybody notices and acts surprised. The man appears to be a joker always wants to be the centre of attention and loves the quiet girl. He brings in two life size presents and the young girl and boy open them, two giant toys come out and begin a duet but they are using the people around them to do the duet including the children. They are using sharp isolated movements acting like robots, using different motifs. The family then get back into partners and begin the duets again... ... look on their faces and start running around in circles and the kiss again! The characters start to run diagonally across the stage in duets and form a huge circle. The use lots of pirouettes all at the same time and then exit the stage with leaps. It leads to the girl and the nutcracker again, showing that they are deeply in love. They perform another duet and kiss again and again. They use movements to show they are in love like smooth runs and turns. They travel away from each other and come back together showing they are reaching for each other’s love! The music becomes grand and they both take centre stage, a new drop down sheet comes down with all different toys on and the music gets faster and faster. They run of and the black and white scene from the start comes back. The stage is now back to the opening scene with the television programme on. The maid comes in going mad and turns the television off. The audience start clapping as the characters come on in duets bow and go through the door apart from the girl and the nutcracker. They finally come on last and the curtain goes up all the characters are in positions and the girl and nutcracker join them.