Konstantinos Rigos and his group Oktana, presented his version of the Nutcracker, third and last part of his trilogy of ballet remakes to the music of P.I. Tchaikovsky. The other parts of the trilogy are the Sleeping Beauty (1999) and Swan Lake (2001). (Nutcracker premiere: 19/11).
A grown-up Clara in a mini skirt and high heels. Sometime around holiday season. Like Ebenezer Scrooge, she will be visited by ghosts of Christmas, good and ugly, all of them filled with sexual activity, past and present that will show her an inescapable future -unless change occurs. What do we get from the adult version of the Nutcracker? First, that Christmas may be a very lonely period. Second, it can be a battle-field that does not the least remind of love and peace on earth, wishes that are left to celebrities, politicians and the various Miss Universes, all of them on TV that night of the year around the globe. Third, that sexuality is a dark space and fourth, that better be a man in this world, because women are apt to abuse and violence.
Third and fourth points combined, lead to the equation: sexuality is dark and has nothing to do with approved rules of morality and descency + women are supposed to be descent and avoid abuse + abuse is inescapable in boys’ games=therefore sex is better of between those who can take it, aka, boyz. Fine, I guess good old master Petipa would have approved of similar hypocrisy and ideological stances, let alone Piotr Ilitch, who allegedly committed suicide because of his sexuality.
Female sexuality traditionally escapes the capacity of understanding by the male community. In K. Rigos’ Nutcracker, Clara, the female “incomprehensible outcast” is only incorporated in the group of the four (male) people either through acute humiliation and hysteria usually identified with “femaleness” or as the alter ego of a “gay outcast”. Well, sorry to break the news, but no, gay men and women do not have the same agenda, and must not have the same agenda. Yes, they have and still do suffer discrimination, but for different reasons and in different settings.
What was disturbing in this truly interesting version of the Nutcracker, was the masochistic image of the female, its “expurgation” through pain and abuse and the hiding of a gay agenda behind a female persona. If “Clara” loves and hates what hates and rejects her, if her object of her desire means that her life must be embedded in shame and fear, she should speak out. Because if a gay male bears the shame of “acting female”, and if a gay person has not come to terms with the shifting of his identity’s signifiers, then future “Christmas” will only repeat past humiliations and traumas.
Critic’s verdict: It’s good to re-open the discussion in regard to gender.
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