This December, to show thanks for the incredible work done by NHS staff members throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, the Royal Opera House will be welcoming NHS nurses and their families to its 2022 Paul Hamlyn Christmas Treat: a morning of interactive workshops and activities followed by a gala performance of The Nutcracker.
The event, scheduled for Saturday 17 December, will include Ballet Barre workshops, demonstrations by members of The Royal Ballet School, storytelling activities, and Q&A sessions with dancers from The Royal Ballet. It will end with The Nutcracker, performed that afternoon by a stellar cast of dancers: Principal Akane Takada as the Sugar Plum Fairy, First Soloist Joseph Sissens as her Prince, Soloist Ashley Dean as Clara, and Soloist Benjamin Ella as Hans Peter (The Nutcracker). The full day of entertainment will run from 10am, with tickets costing as little as £1.
The Paul Hamlyn Christmas Treat is generously supported by The Helen Hamlyn Trust, in memory of the late Paul Hamlyn, and is designed specifically to introduce new audiences to the Royal Opera House. Previous partners have included The Sun newspaper, the National Federation of Women’s Institutes, Girlguiding UK, and a network of arts and health charities.
This year’s event is part of the Royal Opera House’s wider #ThankYouNHS programme: a suite of activities, partnerships and heavily discounted performances for NHS workers. The programme began in June 2021 with Puccini’s La bohème, sung to an auditorium of specially-invited staff from ROH’s nearest hospitals and has since included: a special Family Sunday event, the 2021 Paul Hamlyn Christmas Treat and a performance by the Royal Opera Chorus for hospital radios. So far this Season, over 10,000 NHS key workers and their family members have taken up ticket offers for #ThankYouNHS events, many using the opportunity to visit the ROH for the first time.
Lady Hamlyn, CBE, of the Helen Hamlyn Trust, said:
‘How can we ever adequately thank the wonderful people in the NHS and all the key workers for risking their own lives to protect and care for all of “us”? I very much hope that the Paul Hamlyn Christmas Treat will give much pleasure to all those able to attend.’
