Nuts to the audience

Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet is a very odd organisation. Its dancers are able, some accomplished, and yet the material they're working with would shame pier-end panto. The troupe also makes much of its links with Konstantin Stanislavsky and his so-called "method acting", which encourages actors to identify with the characters they portray.

However, in the company's much-trumpeted new production of The Nutcracker, there was little evidence of anyone identifying with anything, least of all character, with limited acting and the laziest of mime.

If all that weren't bad enough, the orchestra played scratchily and the production was sparse and rickety, with faulty props and a rag-bag of design styles. These run from a Regency-themed house party to mice in mediaeval armour, and Giselle dresses to stage-high, Brancusi-inspired wire sculptures.

A line of these rotate at the back of the stage and, when they worked, cleverly evoked magnified snow flakes and frost patterns. The trouble is, they didn't work all the time, with three or four of them breaking down well before the end of Act II.

There were also problems with the snow machine (it didn't produce much snow) and the fabric backdrops, which rucked up over the props. Arguably, the Royal Festival Hall is ill-equipped to stage productions that require props, scenery and theatrical effects. But as it does, you have to assume it knows what it's doing. It's either that, or the RFH's stage crew aren't talking to the company's technical team.

Unhappily, the shortcomings don't end there. The choreography is weak, the action unclear and the lighting muddy. Worse, costumes came adrift, with the decorative pom-poms falling off dresses left, right and centre, and the ribbons unravelling on one girl's shoes. There were also fluffed steps and an Arabic Dance that was no more Arabic than I am.

This is all a shame because, as mentioned, some of the dancers are good. At Boxing Day's matinee, Yulia Goryunova was sweet in the Chinese Dance, Ekaterina Safonova a lovely looking, if rather immodest Clara/Masha, while Vladimir Grigorev was a nimble Prince. Perhaps the company has had to sacrifice artistic standards for currency requirements.

The Moscow Stanislavsky Ballet & Orchestra: The Nutcracker