Oh hey! I’m in Croatia now!
After arriving in Zagreb last afternoon and checking into my (quite lovely) hostel, I took myself for an early dinner across the street. I got a giant traditional pasta – traditional because of the way they cook it, ripping off pieces of dough and throwing them into boiling water. I also had a flight of seven beers because I’m a bit of an alcoholic, and everything came to be less than $10 USD. While I was there, I looked in my hostel pamphlet and the internet for things to do, and discovered that the Croatian National Theater is one of the cities proudest landmarks. Naturally I had to see what was playing that night. It was The Nutcracker. I got one of the last seats available – it was the first time I ever bought a BOX SEAT, but it was literally only $22 USD so I was like…whatever.
And now… I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ZAGREB BALLET’S PERFORMANCE. Like, a lot of thoughts. I mean I always do after seeing shows…but still.
First off: I have entirely mixed feelings about the choreography. Some of it I loved – I really enjoyed Spanish, Russian – which was more character-y, and Marzipan. I did not love Arabian: there were four guys just holding the girl over their heads looking like they were going to drop her while one or two of them not being used ran in a circle around them. But some of the choreography was just awkward. I don’t know how to describe it. It didn’t flow together, someone would be set up to turn one way and then they’d turn the other way, there were weird lifts that just looked like a struggle and weren’t pretty. I’m not saying ballet always has to be pretty, but that’s what they were going for in those moments, and they looked clunky instead. The choreography was a bit too repetitive and symmetrical for my tastes as well. The party scene didn’t feel like a party, it felt like a series of dances, and wayyyyy too much Clara/Drosselmeyer when it should have (in my opinion) been more of the kids dancing. The party parents dancing was fast and perky, and looked off to me, but maybe that’s because I’m just used to seeing it slow and regal.
And then there was the general blocking. Both the party scene and the battle scene used pretty young kids, which is normal. But for some reason, about half the time the stage was empty, as if the party and battle was happening elsewhere. I really didn’t like this; there were a lot of missed opportunities for fun, and it killed the atmosphere. I honestly thought it was lazy blocking so that they didn’t have to spend too much time working with the kids. However, the beginning of battle was one of my favorites I’ve seen: the first mouse comes out, Clara thinks he’s cute, then he tries to attack her. More start coming out, and they all start attacking her and carrying her around. They did a good job establishing that the mice were bad and trying to hurt her before bringing the soldiers out.
Also this was the second Nutcracker I saw this year without Mother Ginger and I’m very upset by this. I just learned from a New York Times article that European Nutcrackers tend to omit her because she’s in poor taste (drag!) but I am obsessed with her. But I guess that explains why I didn’t see her in this production or the London one.
I could go on and on with my technical critique…but the part that really got to me was the storytelling. There were two SUPER WEIRD things and I don’t know how I feel about them. For one, the Nutcracker Prince was the Cavalier. Maybe this happens in other productions, but I’ve never seen it done before and I found it…odd. I was like WHOSE PRINCE ARE YOU, BITCH? The second thing was that Drosselmeyer was in the whole thing, and broke the fourth wall, which makes sense for his character and everything. But he did a LOT of dancing with Clara. Like a lot. Like half of party scene. And since Clara didn’t have a prince, he ended up dancing with her a lot and sitting with her during all the variations. All of this sounds fine on paper but it started to look weird and kind of rape-y.
Okay, I swear I’m done talking about this production. Today I woke up after a pretty good night’s sleep that was only interrupted by my intense coughing bouts. I got sick during my first visit to Budapest (go figure), mostly recovered in Utrecht, but then started dying again in Berlin and have yet to get better. It’s just a sinus infection, but the problem is the post-nasal drip that comes along with it and causes me to hack up my lungs, especially when I’m trying to sleep. Blech.
My Canadian friend and I went out for some super delicious breakfast. Unfortunately, about ten minutes afterwards I started feeling, shall we say, sub-par. I couldn’t stop burping and had to take several quick trips to the restroom. This was a joyous thing to add on top of all my coughing. I had to take a breather in the middle of the day back in the hostel, and I definitely haven’t been feeling completely myself today. At least it was rainy and gross all day so I didn’t feel like I was missing out on too much.
There were some good things about today though. My favorite was the Museum of Broken Relationships, which displayed people’s personal mementos of ended relationships, with the story next to it in their own words. Some people wrote paragraphs upon paragraphs of poetic prose. Some wrote two sentences. It was fascinating to see the way that people want to remember- or forget- these beautiful stories of their lives. There was a giant stuffed caterpillar on display: a long-distance couple would tear off a leg every time they met, and when it ran out of legs it was time for them to move in together. It still had some legs. There were letters, a wedding dress, an axe that a woman had used to chop up her ex-girlfriend’s furniture before she could pick it up. It’s an important reminder that everyone has relationships that end, and we learn so much about ourselves because of them; they aren’t a failure, they’re a part of your story.
The other highlight was after dinner, we went to this place called The Cookie Factory, and even though I wasn’t feeling great, I couldn’t resist a sandwich of two peanut butter cookies around a thick chocolate paste center. Worth. It.
I’m hoping the weather holds out tomorrow; it’s supposed to be sunny, and I’d love to feel like I can actually walk around the city. But I guess there’s not a whole lot I can do about it either way!