Well, hats off to Ben Duke and his company Lost Dog for sucking all the candy-coloured joy out of Christmas. While the Royal Ballet’s sugar-sweet Nutcracker plays on the main stage upstairs, downstairs we are in the gloomy murk of the classical underworld.
Hades himself (Jean-Daniel Broussé), perky in a see-through frock, points up the contrast, noting that our choice to sit engulfed in darkness says as much about the audience as it does about the show. “It’s 90 minutes you will never get back,” he adds. “That’s the thing about culture. You never know what you’re going to get.”
