It is Christmas Eve. The daughter of the mayor of Nuremberg receives a nutcracker in the form of a soldier as a gift from her Uncle Drosselmeyer. During the night, she gets up to go and look at her gift and finds seven huge rats running around under the Christmas tree, led by their king. In that moment, the Nutcracker comes to life to defend her, revealing himself to be prince Nathanael, the victim of a spell... 
Drawing from the sources used by Tchaikovsky for the ballet of the same name – the story by Alexandre Dumas and that of E.T.A. Hoffmann –, the puppet show evokes the warmth of the home, the intimacy of Christmas night, night-time dreams and nightmares, and the wonder of a fantastic journey. 
For the new staging, the Company’s artisan workshops have created more than 80 new characters, costumes, painted scenes and stage tricks and props, and have designed new forms of movement for the marionettes, in a kaleidoscope of visions that evoke the childhood memories of each and every one of us.