The
Nutcracker

Magical pre-Christmas dream 

Neither child nor adult, Clara feels left out at her family’s big Christmas celebration. She falls asleep and in her dream, the guests are transformed into rats and mice and the nutcracker into a real prince. In an overgrown and slightly spooky universe, the prince and Clara fight against the rats and mice. During the second act, the gifts from the foreign guests also come to life and begin to dance – under the control of the mystical doll maker Drosselmeyer. 

Popular fairytale 

The ballet is based on E.T.A. Hoffman’s story ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’ and is danced around the world at Christmastime. In our new production from 2016, the story is set in Christiania in 1905. “A fairytale you won’t want to leave,” wrote Merete Hobbelstad in Dagbladet after the premiere. 

The Nutcracker is also a performance in which the dancers of the Norwegian National Ballet School share the stage with the stars of the Norwegian National Ballet in a myriad of different roles, from rats and sweets to such dream roles as the prince and both the young and adult Clara. 

And every time the curtain rises, there is someone in the audience seeing the ballet for the very first time. 

• Free introduction one hour before the performance