The Klezmer Nutcracker
by Ellen Kushner and Shirim Klezmer Orchestra
Vital Theatre Company
"But to my delight, the fresh, unembarrased naivete of director Linda Ames Key's production contained a theatrical innocence I love. A dreidel spins miracles and dances in golden human form; a preening peacock spreads its feathers in a startling, magical image; two fleeing children jump up a step to convey jumping down; a cardboard cutout of a young girl travels on a carboard camel and falls off--and a real girl rolls onto the tiny stage.
Now, when Giorgio Strehler's legendary production of Shakespeare's The Tempest began with a storm of painted cardboard waves, the great director was hailed as a theatrical genius (which he surely was). Strehler understood theater's essential playful innocence, and so does the gifted Ms. Key."
