David Spence Archives - thespyinthestalls.com

★★★★

“newcomers of all ages will enjoy this playful and imaginative production”

Creation Theatre’s alternative version of The Nutcracker trades point shoes and pas de deux for plot, characters and a hark back to a wonderfully odd German tale written by E.T.A Hoffmann nearly two centuries ago. Rather than relying on classical ballet and a sweeping score, this production (written and directed by Helen Eastman) leans fully into storytelling giving the familiar characters new depth and transforming the whimsical world of The Nutcracker into something more vivid and emotionally resonant with a touch of ‘Toy Story’ thrown in.

At its heart is Marie (played with childish wonder by Hayley Murray) a perceptive little girl who sees things that adults cannot. It is Christmas Eve and Marie and her annoying brother Fritz are helping their mother (Asha Cornelia Cluer who also plays Clara and the twinkly Sugar Plum Fairy) to decorate the Christmas tree. All three have a very different perception of what a perfect Christmas should be. We see the fraught Christmas of her mother trying frantically to juggle everything before the big day, Fritz taking delight in tormenting his sister and timid Marie who just wants her mother to listen to her and is happy for them all to just be together. Their eccentric Uncle Drosselmeyer pays them a visit and gives Marie a toy nutcracker (a marvellously wooden performance by Clark Alexander who also plays Drosselmeyer) as a Christmas present. When The Nutcracker and her favourite toy Clara later come alive to wage war against the fiendish Mouse King, whose subjects have taken up residence in her house, she is drawn into a surreal hidden world of sweets, mice and the Sugar Plum Fairy. Here she finds her confidence and discovers her own superpowers – kindness, friendship, loyalty and some very useful yet appalling recorder playing!

The Mouse King (played by Andy Owens who also plays Fritz) is a kind of gangster rapper baddie who has a delightfully witty scene of cleverly rephrased Shakespearean quotes ‘a plague on both your mouses’, ‘friends, rodents, countrymen…’ which helps to pick up the pace in the second half along with a hilarious battle scene involving brussels sprouts. The children, who are all part of Creation Theatre’s education programme that reaches hundreds of children annually through weekly drama clubs and holiday workshops, play the mice and various sweets and sing along to the catchy original songs by composer Patrick Stockbridge. They even serenade us with carols in the foyer – what a lovely touch.

The adaptable set (David Spence) is a jauntily angled classic living room with candy striped walls, hung with the odd masterpiece and a black and white liquorice allsorts floor. Drosselmeyer peers down at the action through the lath and plaster ceiling bursting with clock mechanisms reflecting the style of the pre Victorian era in which it was written.

Modern ballets ignore the tale within a tale which is acted out in this production and explains The Nutcracker’s enchantment. The original story hints that beneath all the Christmas sparkle lies something darker than the sugar-coated story this has become over the years. Long time fans of the original will appreciate the respectful nods to tradition while newcomers of all ages will enjoy this playful and imaginative production of The Nutcracker.

Call Me Fury

Hope Theatre

Reviewed – 19th September 2019

★★★

“an interesting and atmospheric production with many thought-provoking moments”

It is hard to know what to make of Call Me Fury at first. The set (David Spence) emanates aspects of folk horror, with bright autumn leaves scattered against straw and an ominous-looking cross – a palette that works well against the performers’ stark pilgrim black (costumes by Helen Stewart). But when the cast snap into action with snippets of wry and ironic commentary, it becomes clear that something different is at work in this production. What emerges over the play’s 75 minute running time is an anthology-style study of witchcraft, which eventually spills over into a piece seeking to tackle the entrenched lies and elusive truths of women’s history.

The main narrative thread that binds the show together is the well-worn story of the Salem witch trials, carried out with much meta-referential criticism of Arthur Miller’s iconic version of the tale in The Crucible. All of the cast (Mairi Hawthorn, Gracie Lai, Olivia Kennett and Sasha Wilson) take on the familiar roles from history: Abigail – the young girl who cries ‘witch’; Samuel Parris – the quick-to-condemn preacher; Tituba – the slave so easily cast as a villain; and Sarah Goode – the poor and despised woman who first faces the accusatory finger, as well as many others. The writing (Sasha Wilson) adds new depth to the characters of Salem through monologues that speak to the power of past trauma and the alienating nature of fear.

However, apart from these few monologues, for the most part the cast play out the action of the trials and their consequences while jumping quickly between being participant and commentator, stopping suddenly to narrate historical backstory and offer their own conclusions and jokes. It is sometimes these parts that feel the least effective element of the whole ensemble – summoning up the over-exaggerated melodrama of the original legend only to pull it apart in asides. It is when the performers branch out into discussions of witchcraft more generally that the dialogue delivers up moments of insight.

Alongside the Salem witch trials, the audience is treated to brief vignettes that examine the fate of other witches through time – spanning from the ancient past to eerily close to the present. The staging is used the most cleverly in these quick scenes; slick body movements and vivid red cloth convey the Gothic pathos of these tales well. Folk songs also punctuate the drama, and these give the performers more time to shine. They keep the mood of the piece anchored when elsewhere the tone so often shifts, and bring a delightfully haunting magic to the stage.

The direction (a collaboration with Hannah Hauer-King) allows the cast a lot of movement so that nothing feels static and the audience is always engaged, but there are moments where some pauses or drawn-out moments of drama might be welcome, in order to let some of the script’s heavy subject matter penetrate more deeply. The lighting (Holly Ellis) is effective, but there are some hints at the start as to how it could have been used more throughout the show.

Altogether, a combination of compelling performances from the cast and a bold mixture of different ideas explored in the writing make Call Me Fury an interesting and atmospheric production with many thought-provoking moments.

THE NUTCRACKER

The North Wall

★★★★

“newcomers of all ages will enjoy this playful and imaginative production”

THE NUTCRACKER

The North Wall

Reviewed on 6th December 2025

by Sarah Milton

Photography by Geraint Lewis

Previously reviewed by Sarah:

THE NUTCRACKER

THE NUTCRACKER

THE NUTCRACKER

Hope Theatre

Reviewed – 19th September 2019

★★★

“an interesting and atmospheric production with many thought-provoking moments”

Altogether, a combination of compelling performances from the cast and a bold mixture of different ideas explored in the writing make Call Me Fury an interesting and atmospheric production with many thought-provoking moments.

Reviewed by Vicky Richards

Photography by David Spence

Call Me Fury

Hope Theatre until 5th October

Previously reviewed at this venue:

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