Horrific Beauty and Lyrical Intensity
Fidelio
by Ludwig van Beethoven, libretto by Joseph Sonnleithner and Georg Friedrich Treitschke, after Jean-Nicolas Bouilly
Garsington Opera Festival at the Wormsley Estate, Stokenchurch until 22nd July
Review by Mark Aspen
Complete darkness, rarely experienced, is terrifying. Many years ago, I became briefly lost in a limestone cave, just a series fissures really, without any light. Then, that moment when I re-emerged into the living world is forever etched in my memory: grass that was oh so green, wild flowers in profusion, butterflies, and above all sunlight! That feeling of freedom was overwhelming.
Hence it is with a frisson of horror that I find deep empathy with Floristan, the cruelly incarcerated political prisoner in Fidelio.
Read more…Warning Trigger
4.48 Psychosis
by Sarah Kane
Royal Shakespeare Company at The Jerwood Upstairs, the Royal Court Theatre, Chelsea until 5thJuly, then at the Other Place Stratford until 27thJuly
Review by Patrick Shorrock
Twenty-five years ago, Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis received its first performances after her suicide the previous year. A quarter of a century later, that production has been revived – with the same cast and director – at the Royal Court Theatre in its intimate Jerwood Theatre Upstairs. 25 years is a long time in theatre. Kane’s work has inevitably become less closely linked to her life and tragic suicide and now seems to be standing on its own feet, having morphed from iconoclastic to classic.
And, while it may have the same performers – Daniel Evans, Jo McInnes, and Madeleine Potter – they are now 25 years older, and the cultural context is different. There is more awareness of mental health issues, and the pain that comes with them. Perhaps this makes this play seem less daring and unusual than it was when it was new.
Read more…Doggone !
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Simon Stephens, adapted from the novel by Mark Haddon
Teddington Theatre Club at the Hampton Hill Theatre until 28th June
Review by Brent Muirhouse
It’s not often that a play manages to both disorient and anchor its audience with its story-craft, but The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Hampton Hill Playhouse pulls this off as surely as the square of the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of a right-angled triangle’s two sides. The work of Pythagoras amongst other things is, under the direction of Nigel Cole, one of many of the individual idiosyncrasies in Mark Haddon’s story, collectively transformed into a theatrical experience that’s as bold in its aesthetic as it is sensitive in its storytelling.
Read more…
What’s in a Name?
Shakespeare is Dead
devised by the Junior Young Actors Company
Richmond Shakespeare Society’s Junior Young Actors Company at the Mary Wallace Theatre, Twickenham until 22nd June
Review by Ralph Stanhope
When I discovered that the Richmond Shakespeare Society was staging an hour-long play for their Junior Actors Company entitled Shakespeare is Dead, to be played by six teenage girls, I immediately wanted to see the results, and did so on their final Sunday matinée performance.. The results were quite something.
Read more…Riotously Batty
Die Fledermaus
by Johann Strauss II, libretto by Carl Haffner and Richard Genée
The Grange Festival at The Grange Northington, Alresford until 5th July
Review by Claire Alexander
There is a rather nice synchronicity about attending an opera that was originally set on a cold New Year’s Eve in Vienna, in the glorious midsummer setting, at its best, at The Grange Festival in a rolling still-rural Hampshire countryside that it’s easy to forget still exists!
It all starts innocently enough. Rosalinde, a lady of Vienna (or it could be anywhere fin de siècle européen) is waiting for her husband, Eisenstein, to return from court with his lawyer, hoping to have escaped a gaol sentence for a petty crime. Adele, her maid, is hoping to get the evening off to attend one of Vienna’s renowned parties given by the extravagant Prince Orlofsky. Rosalinde unsympathetically denies Adele her evening in the spotlight and Eisenstein returns ruing the fact that he has lost his case and must report to the gaol by dawn. Meanwhile Alfred, who has been secretly courting Rosalinde, turns up serenading her. Unfortunately for him, Frank the prison governor, also turns up and, in a glorious case of mistaken identity, takes Alfred for Eisenstein and drags him off to prison, but not before Rosalinde is lured by Dr Falke (the ‘Bat’ and schemer of the title) to the party to see what her errant husband is really doing!
Read more…Potent Passion Potions
The Elixir of Love
by Gaetano Donizetti, libretto by Felice Romani, after Eugene Scribe
Wild Arts Summer Opera Festival at The Layer Marney Tower, Essex until 22ndJune, then on tour until 16thAugust
Review by Mark Aspen
Operas (and their individual productions) come in all shapes and sizes, from the sombre or the tear-jerking, to the romantic or the somewhat baffling. The Elixir of Love falls squarely into the fun, knock-about comedy category . . . or does it?
All of the main characters are deceiving themselves, or others. The deceit ranges from self-delusion to downright subterfuge. In barely more than a day, the plot of The Elixir of Love disentangles the pretence of all of them, bar one, Dr Dulcamara, the purveyor of the titular elixir. Hence, we get to see the heart of each character, as we hear their, often moving and lyrical, revelations.
Nevertheless, Donizetti’s sunlit, outdoor score and the unsophisticated charm of the whole piece says, let’s have fun, and director Guido Martin-Brandis pitches the atmosphere just right. We can laugh broadly, whist allowing ourselves a wry smile, or even a sly tear. What his production does is immerse us in the characters’ lives and really feel for (or against) them.
Read more…A Midsummer Night’s Emma
Emma
by Doon Mackichan and Martin Millar, after the novel by Jane Austen
Questors Productions at Pitzhanger Manor, Walpole Park, Ealing, until 28thJune
Review by Andrew Lawston
The picturesque green space of Walpole Park is the perfect setting for outdoor theatre, and Pitzhanger Manor the perfect backdrop for a Jane Austen adaptation. And the weather could not have been kinder as we sit under bright sunshine in folding chairs for the Questors production of Emma, in an adaptation by Doon Mackichan and Martin Millar.
This versionis a bright and breezy affair, perfect for a summer evening. Jane Austen has just finished her latest manuscript, Emma, and her nieces sneak into her room to read it. Performed at pace, and without an interval, the play is largely performed by Jane Austen’s nieces who make a big entrance in period dresses accessorised with huge sunglasses, while Austen herself generally lounges in chairs at the side of the stage, dropping in occasional plot details, and seemingly terribly amused by the whole production. Played with visible glee by Priya Patel, Austen also takes on the key role of Mr Knightley, switching between the two by an impressive shift in body language, but also through the fun motif of putting on or removing a large pair of glasses.
Read more…Green Ayes
Eugene Onegin
by Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, libretto with Konstantin Shilovsky, after the narrative poem by Alexander Pushkin
Wild Arts, Summer Opera Festival at The Layer Marney Tower, Essex until 21st June, then on tour until 18th September
Review by Mark Aspen
There is something direct, open and uncomplicated about Eugene Onegin, especially in its early scenes, that makes a setting in the wide and open countryside of Layer Marley particularly pertinent and attractive. Sunshine and flowers of a hot June late afternoon chime with the opera’s bucolic first scenes, and act as a contrast in the later scenes which take part in the cloying atmosphere of the fashionable salons of St Petersburg.
The approach is to keep things simple and to let Tchaikovsky’s music and libretto breathe, and this indeed puts new breath into an old favourite. Wild Arts is fortunate in having a talented company, and at the helm: director Dominic Dromgoole, previously artistic director at Shakespeare’s Globe amongst other prestigious theatres; musical director Orlando Jopling, founder of Wild Arts, and with a conducting career that includes The Royal Ballet and Opera, as the combined company is now known; and movement director Siân Williams, whose choreography has encompassed Broadway to Glastonbury via The Royal Shakespeare Company.
Read more…Golden Oldens
The Last Laugh
by Paul Hendy
Jamie Wilson Productions at Richmond Theatre until 21stJune, then on tour until 31stAugust
Review by John Davies
A play about three comedy greats – Morecambe, Cooper and Monkhouse. As a fan, this presents a double-edged sword: on the one hand, how could this fail to be a brilliant evening; on the other, if it doesn’t do justice to such luminaries, I could be disappointed and possibly aggrieved. Fortunately, this production absolutely lived-up to my expectations.
Written by Paul Hendy (a children’s TV presenter in a former life), the play imagines a meeting in a dressing-room between Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecambe and Bob Monkhouse. What results is a mixture of well-known and well-loved comedy material, reflections on their lives and some discussion on the nature of comedy — what makes someone or something funny. The play was adapted from Paul’s own short 2016 film and premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2024 to great acclaim. It is easy to see why it received such plaudits!
Read more…Passion Fruit
La Traviata
by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto by Francesco Maria Piave
The Grange Festival at The Grange Northington, Alresford until 6th July
Review by Mark Aspen
It is quite some while since opera lovers have had the treat of a new production of La Traviata, and the Grange Festival offers a new look at Verdi’s best known work, and it is a gem that probes the psyches of the opera’s main protagonists with intriguing insight and intuition.
Director Maxine Braham has set out to explore the louche world of mid nineteenth century French high society, wisely keeping it in the period and place where it inextricably lives, whilst putting the psychological and emotional impetus of each character under the microscope.
The production introduces, even during the overture, a visual leitmotiv of a small child, clearly Violetta’s younger self, who becomes a recurring presence. The opening scene, in her grand Parisian salon, has fashionable portraits of Violetta as classical or Biblical figures. Here are windows into Violetta’s soul, a secret longing for her lost innocence and a desire for virtuous affirmation. Or is it guilt at that very loss of innocence and virtue?
Read more…
Mark Aspen 