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REVIEW: I AM THEY @Sallis Benney Theatre

I AM THEY

Film Screening

Tuesday November 28

Sallis Benney Theatre

Brighton

Brighton residents, loving couple & Trans & non-binary activists Fox & Owl Fisher gave  a sneak preview of their new film project I AM THEY.  This documentary film is a highly personal narrative of Fox & Owl’s journeys of finding each other, loving each other and how that plays out in a world not open to non-binary identities and which is uncomfortable with people self-defining and celebrating their diversity on their own terms.

Fox and Owl are both celebrated Trans/non-binary activists in their own ways, Owl is a prominent Icelandic activist and Fox is well known in the UK, both work across Europe to advance trans and non-binary equality and profile non-binary networks.

You can check out their interesting and entertaining YouTube channel here

The film, although touching on their various lives was more a focus of their shared life together and their wish to celebrate that in a conscious coupling and how that is currently thwarted by the British (and many other) states demanding binary gender identities on official documents.  The film follows them as they discuss being unable to marry with MP’s, activists and vicars bringing their own vivacious and charming selves to an unwelcoming situation and allowing us to see, both in them and in their relationships with each other, their boundless passion and hopes for a better future. The film is a gentle exercise of intersectionality and we learn about gender recognition, language, social acceptance and the barriers to marriage.

We also got to see some of the deeply unpleasant on-line hatred and twisted main stream media this sweet couple have experienced. In huge heartwarming contrast were  Fox and Owls’ parents in the film, who candidly discussed  to camera their feelings about their children’s journeys into the cherished adults they so obviously loved; although not perhaps completely understood.  I was touched by the startling beauty of Owl’s parents as they talked for the first time on camera, on their farm in the north of Iceland about their acceptance and understanding of Owl, as their child, and as they grew into the complex adult who they were so obviously proud of. It was a beautiful and touching piece of documentary film making and it’s honest, simple message should be shown to any and each parent who might have difficulties understanding their children’s expression of their gender identities.

The film is engaging and interesting without being preachy and using this young couple’s obvious and romantic personal experiences and relationship as the main narrative thrust allows us to keep the focus on them, and the daily struggle they face and the struggle they have to marry – something the rest of British society takes for granted.   There were a few technical difficulties but nothing detracted from the quality of the narrative on screen, Fox and Owl then joined Ben in a question and answer session following the film, where Fox’s parents, also present,  spoke about their own unconditional pride for Fox.

I left with the image of Owl’s mother & father in my mind; rugged landscape behind them, ruddy cheeked, giddy with pride and smiling with joy as they spoke of their love for their child and although not erasing the struggle or pain, they infused me with the hope that the world is slowly getting better for all of us.

For more information about the film see the Sallis Benny website here

 

OPERA REVIEW: Marnie @ENO

Marnie

Nico Muhly at English National Opera

This is a new (world premiere) opera from composer Nico Muhly, with a libretto by Nicholas Wright. Marnie is based on the novel by Winston Graham although alludes to the Hitchcock film. It examines the cost of freedom, the limitations of forgiveness and the impossibility of escaping the past, with Muhly’s  direct and powerful music exploring these themes.

Marnie is a compelling psychological thriller set in England during the late 1950s. A young woman makes her way through life by embezzling from her employers, before she moves on and changes her identity. When her current boss Mark Rutland catches her red-handed, he blackmails her into a loveless marriage. Marnie is left with no choice but to confront the hidden trauma from her past.

Read the synopsis here

Following Two Boys in 2011, this is the composer Nico Muhly’s second world premiere for ENO,  director Michael Mayer makes his UK opera debut, collaborating with ENO Music Director Martyn Brabbins who’s smooth control of the orchestra gave us superb musical moments and an entire evening of perfect sheen and exactness of percussion and tone, the trumpets in particular shone, which made up for some slight narrative bumps in the story. Muhly’s pairing up of instrument and character worked well,  allowing us the insight into the emotional workings of the characters as they lie, deceived, manipulate and cheat each other on stage.  No one tells anyone the truth in the opera, the instrumental paring allows us to follow more closely the narrative impulse.

Mezzo Sasha Cooke sang the title role with a clarity and  febrile vulnerability which was tangible and engaged fully with this complex character within a character, giving us both the vocal power and feminine helplessness / manipulative control  the role demands. Marnie is seriously f’ked up, by a wretched mother who is oddly underwritten considering her terrible actions echo down through the entire narrative up to the very end. Sung with beauty by Kathleen Wilkinson who gave us a lot from her small opportunities along with Diana Montague’s neighbour Lucy, both struggling working class women who do what they must to get by. It’s a lovely pairing and I enjoyed them on stage. Montague’s revelation at the ending funeral scene is beautifully scored and allows her one shining moment of righteousness & rebuking in her singing.

Bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch sings Mark Rutland, the complex husband of Marnie who traps her into marriage and then attempts to assist in dealing with her daemons, his voice wraps itself around the sadness, hurt and confusion of the role with a raw beauty. I felt for them both. They are joined by ENO favourite Lesley Garrett whose role as Mrs Rutland, society matriarch and overprotective mother is fun and James Laing as other Rutland brother Terry whose rejected advances and equally confused attention of Marnie ultimately leads to her exposure, he sang with a wonderful clarity and gave much-needed warmth to an unpleasant opaque character.

Oh the chorus! How many times have I raved about the ENO chorus and yet again I’m given an opportunity to listen to them delight with their overwhelming grace and power, there were some beautiful Brittenesque contrasts of tone and vocal clarity in this production, broad suggestions of space in blended choral song and an exquisite counterpoint as the choir sing a Methodist hymn at a funeral and Marnie finds out the awful truth of her awful early life. Sublime, astonishingly striking and utterly charming harmonic work from the chorus.

Marnie is followed, and shadowed by her four Shadow Marnie’s, all in perfectly exact versions of her own cloths, in primary colours, it reminded me of Disney’s ‘Inside Out’ , but these four Marniettes echo her possibilities, alter egos and emotions and change when she changes but also react when she’s unable to.   These five points of brilliant colour contrasted with the muted 1950’s palette of Arianne Philips costumes and Julian Crouch’s designs, they had a strange and haunting singing style when around her, choosing one note and keeping it, pure and long. It struck me, I adored it, and it felt very ancient and polyphonic in the midst of such modernism and gave Marnie’s confused, crushed psyche some simplicity and order.   Along with a group of silent all male dancers who paraded, peeped, sniffed around and generally vaguely menaced all five Marnie’s with suggestions of creepy male privilege and power.

It’s very beautiful to watch, projections cleverly muted and blend to coalesce into space and geography,  soft endlessly moving sliding panels of the set, the score rising and falling in hypnotic rhythmic John Adams like pacing, superb acting singing sliding in and out-of-place and time with a seriously elegant edge – I enjoyed looking at it as much as listening to it. My enthralled companion attending his first ever ‘modern opera’ was utterly seduced both by the music and singing and announced it his ‘favourite’ ENO production so far!

It’s missing the tension of Hitchcock’s film which is a good thing to those of us who dislike his constant jumps and starts and is firmly back in its British original book setting, which works better.  The chorus with their gossiping, judgmental sniping only adding to this 1950’s drama and its hyperreal feel.

This is a thoughtful production, timely with its focus on power, privilege, and the effect on women of toxic masculinity, sexual abusiveness, power and bad parenting. It’s a working class opera at its heart with an almost happy ending, almost unique in itself. Although perplexed by Marnie, I adored this ENO production and would encourage you to get along to witness this striking and sensitive production. With the current #metoo focus on men in power it’s an appropriate production.

There’s no clarity in the end for poor Marnie; captured she declares herself to ‘be free’ and we leave uncomfortable by the ambiguity of what we’ve witnessed of her life.

Recommended!

For more info or to book tickets see the ENO website here

Until December 3

BOOK REVIEW: Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde 

Your Silence Will Not Protect You:

Essays and Poems Paperback 

by Audre Lorde 

Your Silence Will Not Protect You collects the essential essays and poems of Audre Lorde, including the classic The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House. A trailblazer in intersectional feminism, Lorde’s luminous writings have inspired a new generation of thinkers and writers.

Her lyrical and incisive prose takes on sexism, racism, homophobia, and class; reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope that remain ever-more trenchant today. Lorde was a Poet Laureate until her death; her poetry and prose together produced an aphoristic and incomparably quotable style, as evidenced by her constant presence on many Women’s Marches worldwide.

With a preface by Reni Eddo-Lodge, this beautiful edition honours the ways in which Lorde’s work resonates more than ever thirty years after they were first published.

£12.99

For more info or to buy the book see the publishers website here: 

THEATRE REVIEW: The Kite Runner @Theatre Royal

The Kite Runner

Matthew Spangler

Theatre Royal

Based on Khaled Hosseini’s international best-selling novel, this powerful story has been adapted into this stunning stage production.

Afghanistan is a divided country slipping towards war and two childhood friends are about to be torn apart. It’s a beautiful afternoon in Kabul and the skies are full of the excitement and joy of a kite flying tournament. But neither Hassan nor Amir can foresee the terrible incident which will shatter their lives forever.

This adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel is a vivid exploration of class, sectarian, religious, political and sexual mores in Afghanistan in the last 30 years. Amir is a Pashtun Sunni Muslim while Hassan, the family servant’s son, is a Hazara Shi’a Muslim, this is the basis for the story to unfold, refold and then be folded in again, nothing is quite what it seems in this story, although everything stays the same, the actions can be viewed in retrospect once full knowledge is achieved. I suspect I was the only person in the theatre tonight who had not read the book nor seen the film (which was produced after this play was first performed), so I went in untainted. I left reeling, after a harrowing evening of quite sublime and beautiful theatre focusing on some of the most unpleasant content I’ve winced at in years.

I learned a lot about Afghanistan culture and manners, although the history content is not explored in-depth.  The ultra-personal narrative takes us through his haunting tale of friendship which spans cultures and continents, it follows his journey to confront his past and find redemption. Ultimately he redeems himself by fighting his childhood persecutor, now a notorious Taliban punisher and rescuing Hassan’s son from his twisted abusive hands.

The staging designed by Barney George  is a wonderful set up of lighting, carpet and kite wings which lift in and out of the stage like huge screens with American and Afghan projections to suggest changes of space, geography, focus and narrative tension. They reveal as much as they hide and this gives our imagination it’s awful power. The cast use traditional instruments, singing bowls and schwirrbogen to suggest the endless wind, motion and tensions of the plot, while on stage Hanif Khan  gives us an almost constant percussive Tabla narrative of his own, blending and coherently linking the action across time and geography, he was superb.  David Ahmad as Amir is compelling, Jo Ben Ayed as Hassan/Sohrab elicits empathy from the off and shines in his exploration of humility, devotion and love for his friend.  Emilio Doorgasingh as stern father Baba is a wonderful performance showing the changes in this man as he fights to react to the huge changes forced on him by the crumbling Afghan state and their flight to America.   There wasn’t a member of the cast who I didn’t enjoy watching perform this evening.

I think it’s the first time I’ve seen an all BME cast at the Theatre Royal and this was as refreshing as it was novel. The talented group of actors change roles depending on the chronology of the play but each brings their own conviction to the unfolding of the story.

Learn more and see the full cast, crew and musicians here

It’s a hard look at the chaos of the unleashing of hugely destructive violent social prejudice from the perspective of a small close knit family and community and its ultimate destruction at the hands of its own people, supported, funded and armed by British, American and Russian forces. Its use of personal catastrophe as an intersectional metaphor for national tragedy is relentless.  It’s also a breathless, almost unbearable personal confession and scalpel edged searching for understanding and redemption, filled with wrong turns and cowardice which eventually, after endless trauma, shows that one small act of courage can provide hope for change and be a catalyst for transformation.

As a newbie to The Kite Runner I left changed, this superb staging from Nottingham and Liverpool Playhouses is engaging, fresh and utterly compelling.

Recommended,

Plays until Saturday 18

 

MUSIC REVIEW: Christmas Oratorio: BREMF

CHRISTMAS ORATORIO

J S BACH

St Martin’s Church

On November 12

Hannah Ely soprano

Rebecca Leggett mezzo soprano

Hugo Hymas tenor (Evangelist)

Simon Wallfisch baritone

 

The BREMF Players

Alison Bury leader

The BREMF Singers

John Hancorn director

Bach’s Christmas Oratorio is a huge piece to undertake. Bach designed the oratorio’s six parts as self-contained cantatas to be sung separately on the days leading up to and after Christmas but when presented all together they show their coherent whole.  BREMF wisely  left one part of it out, [Part IV omitted in this performance] not that that diminished the evening in the slightest and made what could have been a long haul into a very pleasant and well balanced evening.

The splendid atmosphere of St Martins added to the gravitas and festive feeling of this production, she really is a fine old Leviathan of a building and the acoustic is superb, the massed voices of the singers rolling sharply around the huge roof and keeping the clarity of the music intact.

There were some choral parts which the audience could join in with, there having been an earlier free event for people keen to sing, it was very English in a subdued way. The Christmas Oratorio is a simply lovey piece of Bach, complex, easy to understand, impressive, simple, elegant and astonishing in equal measure it reminds us of quite what an astonishing talent Bach what and how lucky we are live in a city which takes its music so seriously and with such passion.

The BREMF Singers are unparalleled in their precision, diction and singing in the original German provided an authentic feeling to the evening. I never fail to be impressed by the quality of the BREMF singers; they provided a superb level of choral singing which adds impressively to any event they are part of.

The four principal singers held us in their grasp form the moment they started to sing, clear voices rolling across the audience and keeping the important narrative pace of the plot electric and engaging. All four shone.

See the full programme and texts here
This evening’s music was superb, it’s almost as if the BREMF was saving the best till last but this year’s programme has excelled in the quality of its music and tonight was no exception. John Hancorn conducted with a florid grace which kept the music tight and graceful while allowing the complex interactions of Bach’s melodies to entwine and entice us.  The orchestra were on top form with premier performances from each and every one of the players, the trumpeters excelled.

This was the final event of this years Brighton Early Music Festival and what a superb year its been, it’s also the last festival for BREMF Co-Artistic Director Clare Norburn & she stood one last time to thank us for supporting the festival and it was an opportunity for the audience and players to thank her for her endless, boundless enthusiasm and patience which has grown the BREMF into a force to be reckoned with in the Classical Music world.  The audience showed their approval and I would add my own thanks in to Clare for her superb choices year after year in programming the festival, her unwavering support for quality accessible music and the innovations of BREMF which bring Classical music to young people in local schools each year. (Read more here)  We wish you well in your future endeavours.

There will be two special Festival concerts in December which you can learn more and book tickets for here.

 

REVIEW: TALES IN MUSIC: THE PIGEON AND THE ALBATROSS: Little Baroque Company

TALES IN MUSIC: THE PIGEON AND THE ALBATROSS

Little Baroque Company

The room was full of rows of expectant children and the parents in a semi circle everyone excited. The room was lovely and warm. The musicians were wearing feather wigs, bright colours, looking resplendent in their outfits and engaging and interesting. I took along my five year old niece and her mother (who snoozed appreciatively throughout the show while First Born and I enjoyed this fun production). I asked niece to help me write this review.

As the music starts we are invited to explore the story and this thrilled the younger members of the audience.

A nightingale tells the story of an ordinary pigeon that wanted to see new horizons and reach new skies. He didn’t want to live a pigeon’s life and asked the mother to let him go (“I have wings you see, you have to let me go”). And off the bird goes on several adventures. Different composers and set musical pieces being used to represent these adventures, place and time. These summoned up nicely with different pieces from the music of Telemann, Handel, Vivaldi and Biber offering up differing but complimentary visions. Once he found a majestic bird, a stunning peacock & although amazed he kept comparing himself to that lovely bird and felt depressed, we’ve all been there I thought as the music played on.

The musicians used the instruments and music to expertly convey his flying somewhere or to express his state of mind. Meanwhile……. the pigeon was crying and the albatross (that was inside a cage – zoo? Crippled by self esteem issues, nasty feather farming, prison for revenge murdering an ancient marina I got a bit confused…) and since she could not get away from her cage she asked the pigeon to save her egg. Pigeon saves the egg, takes it to safety and hatches the egg. And then off they go on several adventures around the world. Ah, thank goodness, a happy ending with Pigeon expanding his cartography skills and they return home safely.

I think the moral of the story was a journey led by curiosity and the dream of not being ordinary leads to great adventure but is not without its trails, but whatever the meaning the children enjoyed themselves a lot and we all left very happy with this enjoyable, accessible and fun afternoons adventure. I was bombarded with questions later in the day about harpsichords, the odd lady in the green wig and why the pigeon had a map in its head. Education can be a dangerous thing and when combined with such fun story telling and expertly played music, it’s intoxicating.

Well done Little Baroque Company, what a creative and innovative afternoon.

Full Details of the event here. 

Learn more about the Little Baroque Company.

REVIEW: ORFEO: BREMF

ORFEO

BREMF

Monteverdi String Band

The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble

Wed 8 Nov

The Old Market

Rory Carver tenor Orfeo
Jenni Harper soprano Musica, Speranza, Euridice
Helen Charlston mezzo soprano Messaggera, Proserpina
Benedict Hymas tenor Pastore, Apollo, Spirito del coro
Dominic Bevan tenor Pastore, Eco, Spirito del coro
Richard Moore bass Caronte
Andrew Robinson baritone Plutone, Pastore, Spirito del coro

Monteverdi String Band
Oliver Webber leader

The English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble

Aileen Henry harp
James Bramley chitarrone
Claire Williams harpsichord, organ

Deborah Roberts musical director 
Thomas Guthrie director 

Monteverdi’s first opera premiered in 1607, is on love, death and loss was based on a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, with its roots in ancient mythology.  Monteverdi managed to get this opera right and is often credited with inventing modern opera- although not true-  the term Opera itself wasn’t even used until the mid-17th century, he did manage to deliver  music, singing, stagecraft and emotional heft & chaos of the story in an entertaining way. Although with some philosophy as was the way of the time and this stuck and  has allowed us, 400 years later  to enjoy this earliest of styles of Opera. This new production by Thomas Guthrie features a young cast of emerging soloists.

Not the most engaging piece of early opera, although the light touch setting of late 20th century wedding, picnic and after party worked well,  presenting the wedding and subsequent actions amongst  group of hipster friends with a touch of Mod v Rockers shoehorned in for extra affect. Costume and set were minimal and modern, supplemented by some imaginative projections and shadowy lighting which allowed the music & singing to shine. It’s a ‘park & bark’ piece of composition but Director  Guthrie allowed some slow and subtle chorography to embellish the action. Although it never quite reached beyond a M&S picnic up into mythological mists of nymphs and satyrs.

Pluto was played with rich rolling toned relish by Andrew Robinson, Eurydice’s simplicity and beauty came across with the tone perfect diction and polished singing of Jenni Harper. Orfeo himself was given the narrative oomph needed by Rory Carver and his lyrical tenor carried the action and conveyed the connection, desperation and ultimate apotheosis well. Richard Moore’s Caronte (Charon) sung and acted with menace and poise with his profound bass but was served no favours by his huge comedy beard.

Monteverdi String Band with Oliver Webber as leader showed us the refined and careful progressions of this music while allowing its simplicity and harmonic structure to dominate, along with the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble who brought these most difficult of instruments to vivid life. It’s always such a joy to be in the presence of a qualified sackbut player and tonight we had a pair of extraordinary players.  Musical director Deborah Roberts allowed the sometimes moody instruments to shine in this evening’s performance giving us the apparently pure and simple melodies whist exposing the modulations in a fresh, honest way and it was an added treat to be so close to the instruments. The opening trumpets and trombones used for the ceremonial Toccata were superb.

The plot is exasperating to a 21st Century audience, it seems insipid and slightly daft and left me wondering if the original ( all male)  audience would have been satisfied with such pedestrian storytelling from the classics, but my own musings aside this was an engaging evening of refined music and singing performed with commitment by these talented singers and musicians,

Once again the Brighton Early Music Festival shows that you can take problematic and difficult pieces of early music and when stripped down and presented with care and consideration they can be allowed to shine and be appreciated for their own idiosyncratic, early charms.

Two more performances 11th & 12th November, book now!

For full details of this performance or to book tickets for further events see the BREMF website here.

 

REVIEW: Roots, Shoots and Celestial Flowers: BREMF

Roots, Shoots and Celestial Flowers

Musica Secreta and Celestial Sirens

Musica Secreta
Hannah Ely soprano
Katharine Hawnt and Nancy Cole mezzo sopranos
Caroline Trevor alto
Alison Kinder bass viol
Claire Williams organ

Celestial Sirens
Deborah Roberts and Laurie Stras directors

Although opening with a nod at Lynn Truss famous example of incorrect punctuation this was a pretty serious production of works rarely heard. The rise of the great convent choirs of Ferrara was shared in music from the 15th and 16th centuries with Musica Secreta celebrating the Virgin Mary in a range of sublime motets & choral works. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music & here we explored music that has rarely been heard outside the convent.

The singers along with their choir, attired as nuns and silently drifting around the church from front of stage to the rear in the choirstalls presented works by Josquin, Gombert, de Rore and Willaert and we were treated to some carefully explored and extraordinary music probably composed by Lucrezia Borgia’s daughter, Leonora d’Este.

The Soprano and two mezzos gave some sublime and subtle performances across the evening and I found myself floating off into the ethereal vaults more than once as their voices combined and entwined in perfect harmony and sored into blissfulness.

Celestial Sirens are a South Coast-based semi-professional women’s voice choir, formed in 2002 by Musica Secreta director Deborah Roberts they performs plainchant and polyphony from six centuries of choral repertoire.

Musica Secreta have released a CD of this music that you can buy or find out more about here:

Friday, November 3, 8pm, St Paul’s Church, Brighton

See full details of the event here:

 

OPERA REVIEW: The life to come by Fry & Mander

THE LIFE TO COME

Libretto by Stephen Fry

Music by Louis Mander

An Opera in Two Acts based on a story  by EM Forster

This examination of male love, devotion to duty, missionary zeal, colonial hypocrisy and righteous entitlement of the white British middle classes of Edwardian England is a surprising piece of work.  Filled with suppressed passion, missed opportunity and tragic abandonment the opera examines the life of Missionary and Chief, Edwardian Christian Missionary Paul Pinmay and the African Tribal chief he came to convert, Vithobai, who experience an intense emotional and sexual bond which is forbidden by the English Church, although utterly acceptable to Vithobai’s beliefs and leads to misunderstanding, exploitation and murder, so far, so normal for Rodean on a Sunday afternoon.

Mander’s music is relentless, pulling like an emotional tide on the feelings, rising and falling, swamping and leaving us high and dry and then with a final tsunami of force shocking us into silence.  Fry’s libretto, struggling with the understated shame and muttering indignity of EM Forster’s short story ‘the life to come’ which was not published until two years after Forster’s death, does it’s best to explore and express this multitude of complex emotions.

The music a lyrical flowing narrative with echoes of early Britten and Copeland which filled the space and kept the emotional core of this piece steady and relative to the sometimes complex actions on stage. Often the music underscored and emphasised the subtleties of emotion that the acting failed to adequately demonstrate, there was some superb harp and strong pizzicato work and an energetic and symbolic use of percussion which was mesmerising. I suspect the actors played safe particularly in the anguish and regret of their sexual appetites and how they had given into them, but the music certainly didn’t. Giving full range to the regret and despair that a man of that time, space and apparent character might feel the next morning.

See the synopsis here

Martin Lindau playing Paul Pinmay gave us rich textured singing, expressive and honest, his acting sometimes melodramatic but his singing superb,  Themba Mvula as Vithobai – was the stronger of the pair, his lyrical voice shone with tone and emotion and he fully engaged and convinced his own personal confusion and patience. The supporting singers were all rather good, along with a rather large chorus who gave some excellent supporting singing and filled the space with the fervour and voices necessary to convince of the tensions between public and private lives in colonial Africa.

Never an easy subject – this opera is a potential minefield of racist, homophobic anti-religious attitudes – it is remarkable in its ability to carefully walk through such concern by keeping its focus on the personal & spiritual experiences of the characters.  Fry’s libretto is a little staid on occasion but it’s also refreshing to listen to the voice of such a staunch and eloquent atheist being applied to religious dogma and doggerel and the very real harm it has caused to the expression of love in all its infinite variety.   It’s the first time in a long time when I’ve  thought ‘you deserved that you sanctimonious  worm‘ at the inevitable nasty end of one of the protagonists. I felt for Vithobai’s betrayal.

So much opera is shot through with religious kowtowing and the corrosive, many tentacled self preserving privilege of white male hetrosexual christianity, its bracing to hear something which poses them as the dark side. The director Jonathan Butcher has performed a subtle piece of magic here and it’s strengthened as a piece of theatre for the boldness of vision displayed by the cast

This terrible ironic opera is a study of victims, regret and forgiveness, but ultimately it’s a cautionary tale about love:  As Vithobai says, ‘“I forgive you, I do not forgive, both are the same.”’

Surrey Opera presented this world premiere, with professional principals, chorus and orchestra, directed and conducted by Jonathan Butcher at Rodean School theatre.

 

REVIEW: The Real Thing @Theatre Royal

The Real Thing

By Tom Stoppard

Theatre Royal

A warm and comfy opening promised much, good music, a well-balanced cast, glossy set, a fun opening scene, a rug-pull, such potential; but then a miasma seemed to come over me and the play receded into cynicism.

I wasn’t gripped and although folk rave about this play I found it trite and unengaging, the characters are unpleasant, the humour mean and the laughter snobbish. I’ve been a fan of Stoppard for most of my life but this play, thirty years old now and certainly showing its age, has made me reassess him.  This is a play all about the heart, but without one of its own.

The set was as interesting as the acting, there was some pretty good Gplan furniture on show, well sourced by designer Jonathan Fensom including a simply perfect Halo Groucho sofa in faded Aniline leather, a fetching teak Danish style sideboard and a Charles E. style Swivel Chair with its ottoman that I coveted but I failed to engage with the actors. The ‘twist’ was more of a slight curve to the right and more of the same continued. It must be hard work to act so dismissively for so long and although the detachment of the characters and the dichotomy between what they say and what they do is part of the narrative engine of this play, I wasn’t convinced.

Stoppard’s words fly around, they are funny and caustic, the actors obviously enjoy speaking them, even if the sentences are often more than a mouthful, the set piece speeches are entertaining and irritating, clever, deep and shallow and it’s all very showy and apparently entertaining on one level, out came that cricket bat, but I was stumped.

The second half brought more laughter from the audience than the first and the cast seemed more settled, I sustained an interest in the sentences as they flew by but I didn’t care about any of the people on stage, the subplot of the solider/prisoner just another excuse for implausible grubbiness.  I wondered if a middle class intellectual so obsessed with taste would have prominent forearm tattoos’ in the early 1980’s , but that was it. At its core this is a depressing piece of theatre with far too much clowning around dressed up as meaning.

This play is all about honesty, I didn’t enjoy this play, honestly.

Plays until Saturday, November 4, 2017.

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