Christmas stories are known for magical realism and fantastical characters, and none is as wacky and wild as The Nutcracker. This classic, in which a girl’s loving devotion transforms her nutcracker into a prince, has long inspired imaginations. Yet, considering the parabolic nature of holiday tales, I always wondered what I was meant to learn from toy soldiers, mouse kings, and sugar plum fairies.
As I shivered through Glen Echo Park and its maze of sleepy, weathered attractions, I was warmed by the sight of a mellow yellow building with red trimming — The Puppet Co. theater. This holiday season marks its 37th annual showing of The Nutcracker, originally devised by founders Allan Stevens, Christopher Piper, and MayField Piper, with music by the Arlington Symphony Orchestra and directed by Danny Pushkin. Like Clara, I saw inanimate objects come to life and realized that the imagination’s limitless possibility was the lesson.
I sat on the carpeted floor among the crowd of 5- to 6-year-olds, who were as rowdy as any theater audience before the lights go down. I followed their lead, folding my legs on my coat, placing my gloves in my lap, and giving in to the familiar atmosphere of anticipatory excitement. The parents sat on benches that encircled the room, ready at a moment’s notice with a tissue or a stern “shush!”
It felt like an interactive play as the children vocalized their reactions to what was happening on stage. A collective gasp as a pesky mouse became The Mouse King. Loud jeers for The Nutcracker to fight him. A round of applause befitting a curtain call when The Mouse King was defeated. This level of engagement never waned as performer after performer held the wee little audience’s attention. The parents, too, were mesmerized by the joyful cabaret of puppets and the joy on their children’s faces.
The Puppet Co. used almost every puppet machination in its repertoire for this performance. Drosselmeier’s visit to the Stahlbaum family utilized mascot puppets. The company’s teaching artists donned oversized, glass-eyed masks with stiff hair made of yarn or solid, as if a helmet. Drosselmeier entertains the Stahlbaum children with a hand puppet show. While the artistry of this production reaches impressive heights of puppeteering, the kids laughed the hardest at the simple silliness of hand puppets slapping each other with inflexible arms. The mascot suits for the life-sized versions of The Nutcracker and The Mouse King dazzled. The Mouse King’s seven heads were reimagined as glittering silver cups, each with red beady eyes. The Nutcracker was as imposing as he was ridiculous — a bobblehead with a golden sword and a beautifully detailed blue-and-red toy soldier’s uniform.
The set had the layered quality of a pop-up book. As Clara was transported from her family home into the world of The Nutcracker, hand-crafted pieces slid into place, framing the stage with angelic trumpeters and candy decorations. Around the center stage, green curtains enclosed the space where mascot puppets acted out scenes of domesticity and absurdity. Beyond them, red velvet drapes opened onto a second playing area where marionettes danced and flew, guided by unseen puppeteers above. Among them was a luminescent bird that wiggled its wings across the dark backdrop. The production also employed a “curtain of light,” or blacklight technique, to animate a prowling tiger in pursuit of the jingling bird. A puppeteer in a ninja suit blended into the darkness as they manipulated the glow-in-the-dark cat at center stage.
My favorite moment was the “Waltz of the Flowers.” Reminiscent of bunraku, a form of traditional Japanese puppetry in which the operators remain visible, the dance was performed by puppeteers in flower-bud bodysuits operating smaller, blossom-like puppet ballerinas. They pulled on invisible strings as if playing a harp, sending the ballerinas leaping, kicking, and pliéing, passing the puppets back and forth to recreate the choreography’s intricate formations.
The Puppet Co.’s Nutcracker reminded me that holiday stories endure not because they offer a tidy moral, but because they encourage us to practice wonder.
Running Time: 60 minutes.
The Nutcracker plays through December 31, 2025, at The Puppet Co., located in Glen Echo Park, 7300 MacArthur Blvd, Glen Echo, MD. Purchase tickets ($16 for general admission) online or call the Box Office at 301-634-5380. No ticket required for under age 2.
TEACHING ARTISTS
Ingrid Bork
Mollie Greenberg
Kenzy Hinkel
Danny Pushkin
Penny Russell
TECHNICAL STAFF
Willow Collins
Andrew McMichael
Andrea “Dre” Moore
