Fine Singing Framed by Flowers
Madama Butterfly
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Guiseppe Giacosa
Sembla and Opera International for Ellen Kent Productions with the Ukranian Opera and Ballet Theatre Kyiv at Richmond Theatre 26thMarch and on tour until 14thMay
Review by Patrick Shorrock
With the Arts Council cutting grants to opera companies left, right, and centre, a big thank you to Ellen Kent Productions for trying to fill the gap. This production of Madama Butterfly is conventional and decorative rather than probing or radical, but has two very fine singers in the lead. There is no doubting that this is an increasingly strange piece nowadays. In some ways it is all about the clash of cultures – young Geisha, Butterfly wants a permanent American marriage while Naval Lt Pinkerton is after a temporary Japanese one, as he has a bride waiting for him at home. Whilst its critique of American imperialism – Pinkerton has very little by way of redeeming features – is quite effective, it views Japanese culture through an Italian orientalist lens that appropriates and prettifies and arguably blurs the contrast between American and Japanese
Read more…Snow Match
La Bohème
by Giacomo Puccini, libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
Sembla and Opera International for Ellen Kent Productions with the Ukrainian Opera and Ballet Theatre Kyiv at Richmond Theatre until 25th March, then on tour until 14th May
Review by Eleanor Lewis
Ladies! Looking for a man? Try hanging about outside his attic room at night, claiming your candle has gone out. Guaranteed results and far less time-consuming than dating apps. Not that dating apps were an option in 1830s Paris where poverty and extremely limited options occupied the daily lives of very many people, but that is where we find the familiar characters of Puccini’s La Bohème in Senbla and Opera International’s production of that work at Richmond this week.
The story of La Bohème is well known. A happy quartet of friends and artists, Rodolfo a poet, Colline a philosopher, Marcello a painter and Schaunard a musician, live from day to day personifying the concept of ‘poor but happy’, until the sweet, beautiful but ultimately consumptive Mimi encounters Rodolfo during her search for some means of lighting a candle, and Love with a capital ‘L’ ensues, together with much merriment and gentle bohemian anarchy in the heart of Paris (which, in an appropriately ‘pourquoi pas?’ spirit, seems to have acquired an early Eiffel Tower).
Read more…Many a Slip
Accidental Death of an Anarchist
by Dario Fo and Franca Ramé, adapted by Tom Basden
Putney Theatre Company at the Putney Arts Theatre until 29th March
Review by Polly Davies
Dario Fo’s multi-layered play makes a bold swansong. But for an astute director like Barney Hart Dyke Accidental Death of an Anarchist presented the ideal culmination of his much-acclaimed tenure as Artistic Co-Director of Putney Theatre Company, a post he has held with his wife Cait, together a driving force for the company’s recent diverse and successful seasons. However, it also was an opportunity to nurture the growing talent of Owen Thomas-James, as his assistant director, who is making his directorial company debut taking up the tough choice of a farce. However, Barney Hart Dyke has a wealth of experience in directing farce, a genre where slick movement and laughter must be finely balanced.
In the event, there is a lot of laughter, and plenty of slick moves, for Tom Everatt’s energetic central character is clearly inspired by Dario Fo’s own oeuvre. The Nobel prize-winning author was known as both a successful satirist and as a comic. As an early adopter of the agit-prop style theatre, in his own performances he successfully combined political satire, physical comedy and mime. And this play offers a full hand of all these skills alongside some swiftly executed role changes.
Read more…Passionate Provocation
La Traviata
by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
Sembla and Ellen Kent Productions with the Ukrainian Opera and Ballet Theatre Kyiv at Richmond Theatre until 24th March, then on tour until 12th May
Review by Mark Aspen
Of all his tragic heroines, Verdi seems to have really cared the most for the courtesan Violetta Valéry, the subject of La Traviata, and it shows in the heartfelt nature of his music. Could there be something a bit autobiographical here? The Italian verb traviare means to go astray. His second wife Giuseppina Strepponi had become famous and well-connected as an operatic diva, including performing in Verdi’s early operas, but had become somewhat notorious as the companion to a number of wealthy patrons before she married Verdi.
La Traviata is based on La Dame aux Camélias , the play by Alexandre Dumas fils, which Verdi and Strepponi had been together to see performed in Paris. The inspiration for Dumas’ play, and the book which preceded it, was the enigmatic Marie Duplessis, the real-life courtesan, with whom Dumas had had a passionate affair.
Read more…Door Closes. Window Opens?
Take the Last Bow with Me
by Jackie Howting
Edmundian Players at Nelson Hall, Whitton, 22nd March
Review and retrospective by Josh Dalton
It was a rather cold and dark Saturday night in Whitton, where a number of confused audience members arrived at Cheray Hall the home of the Edmundians for the last sixty years, having not taken note of the different location across the road. It was a mystery to some as to why the latest production was taking place somewhere new, and why there had been no Christmas panto, but all was soon to be revealed.
Read more…Troy Story
Trojan Barbie
by Christine Evans
Questors Productions at the Questors Studio, Ealing, until 29th March
Review by Andrew Lawston
The women of Troy lament their fallen city and slaughtered families, while a doll-mender prepares to embark on a cultural tour for singles, reasoning that “people are nicer on holiday”.
Past and present collide in Trojan Barbie by Christine Evans. Cassandra tells us this is nothing unusual, in typically colourful language, but as usual no one listens to her. Against the black walls of the Questors Studio, history repeats itself, sometimes as tragedy, sometimes as farce, and often both together as Emily Hawley’s thoroughly modern Polly X is dragged away to be sacrificed by two predatory occupying soldiers Jorge (Jacob Dalton) and Max (Herman Svartling Stolpe), but ends up drinking beer with them in an abandoned zoo.
Read more…Tarnished Stardust
Playhouse Creatures
by April De Angelis
OT Productions at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond until 12thApril and then on tour until 3rd May
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Plays and musicals about life in the theatre – from Trelawny of the Wells to Follies – often end up as celebrations in spite of themselves
Even if they feature the hardship, exploitation, and insecurity that loom so large in an actor’s life, we are usually given a feel-good ending that suggests that the required sacrifice is somehow worth it: the intensity of live performance in front of an audience is presented as giving meaning to even the most painful life. Even when dramatists take a few well aimed shots at the delusion and pretention that thrive in a theatrical environment, they generally succumb by the end to the lure of sentimentality and stardust.
Read more…Marriage à la Mode?
The Dance of Death
by Connor McPherson adapted from the play by August Strindberg
Rhinoceros Theatre Company at the Coward Studio, Hampton Hill Theatre until 22nd March
Review by Heather Moulson
Being a big admirer of playwright Connor McPherson, I was impressed with his adaption of Strindberg’s The Dance of Death.
An apt dark setting with troubled-looking antique furniture and a piano that creates the right atmosphere; it sets the tone of resentment to come, and gives an aura of genteel poverty. There is also a nice claustrophobic touch, which is not unattractive. The atmospheric set was designed by the talented Junis Olmscheid, who also designed the costumes. This play was written by Strindberg in 1900 and this production has a mixed sense of period. Alice’s dress looks ‘forties and Kurt has near-Nazi attire.
Read more…Masterfleece
Picture You Dead
by Peter James
Josh Andrews Productions at the Richmond Theatre until 22nd March, then on tour until 26th July
Review by Gill Martin
White knuckles, gripping edge of your seats, gun shots and shocks, torture and murders most grisly: if this is your recipe for a great night out at the theatre look no further than Picture You Dead, now playing at Richmond Theatre as part of its UK tour, directed By Jonathan O’Boyle
For those less addicted to the crime thriller genre of Peter James’ police hero Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, this production still offers an entertaining evening of drama with a mix of humour and clever convoluted plot and characterisation.
Read more…Home Front
While the Sun Shines
byTerence Rattigan
Richmond Shakespeare Society at the Mary Wallace Theatre, Twickenham until 22nd March
Review by Gill Martin
London is in the teeth of the Blitz. But love is the air despite the deprivations of World War Two.
The scene is set beautifully even before the curtain rises at Twickenham’s riverside theatre, the Mary Wallace. Elizabeth Valentine as Rosie Dupree, the Soho Songbird, was in full melodic voice with A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, as the opening night audience took their seats. An evening of gentle humour in this giddy farce where political correctness leaps out the window awaited them in three acts with musical intervals.
Read more…
Mark Aspen 