Whilst I am clearly not the target audience for this production, the kids around me loved it and it is easy to see how it would be a great day out for any family with young kids. Donaldson’s tales are simple and enjoyable and the enthusiastic cast and direction make it certainly worth the trip.
This gender, race and sexual politics canvas stretches across the entire platform of the performances, from the sharp opening patter of Fez Fa’anana which happily offends everyone equally, through the “pretty doesn’t mean dumb” antics of the cheeky Louis Briggs and the vignettes with an increasingly more naked Lucky Charm (Lachy Shelley) to the various satirical and ironic numbers involving the remarkable Dallas Dellaforce, whose take on gender roles in society is razor sharp and strikingly bold.
Hetty Feather is a triumph – although it’s ostensibly for children, it’s a touching and absorbing tale for all ages. It combines multiple artistic elements to fantastic effect and manages to be funny, uplifting and sad, sometimes all in the same scene.
Regardless of how it is characterised, Michael Strassen’s production of Tommy is a genuine triumph, practically perfect in every way. From the first note, it grabs you by the throat, demands that attention be paid, and does not relent in that until Tommy spins the oversized pinball in his hands and a blackout signals the show has ended. Intervals are rarely resented these days, but I freely confess to resenting the interval here. This is an exceptional reimagining of a work rarely performed on stage. Vocally, dramatically and artistically it is an unqualified triumph. Ashley Birchall is a rising star, John Barr an established one.
Christian James is a wonderful Pinocchio. He completely captures the sense of the character’s otherness and separation (being living wood) as well as a newcomer’s desire to explore and a child’s desire to rebel. The sequence where he learns about lying and his nose growing is genuinely delightful, as is the way he quickly shaves off his extra growth before Gepetto’s return. Bronagh Lagan has presided over an excellent production of an interesting and involving musical which provides a fresh, but refreshingly old-fashioned approach to the entertainment and stimulation of (especially) young minds. You leave wanting -desperately – to be able to bring youngsters to more theatre just like this.
Proud’s choreography is redolent with an acute understanding of all this and everything he does aims to help involvement in and understanding of the work’s intent. The hotel is seen as reflective of the Berlin experience and that is reflective of world experience: the microcosm in the hotel provides universal truths and observations. From the almost military opening routine, through the set pieces and the smaller incidents, the big, joyous all-in numbers, and the more intimate moments of pain or joy, Proud sees to it that dance propels the action, accentuates the fun and underscores the darkness.
Montemezzi may have been something of a one-work composer, but this performance made the best case possible for his masterpiece, and we can only hope that the repute of this revival will stimulate a wave of further performances at home and abroad. The whole evening showed Opera Holland Park at its very best.
The Globe is not really a space for claustrophobic intense drama and this production really brings that home. This production would look and feel very different in the Sam Wanamaker Theatre and probably should have been programmed there. The openness of the space works against the building tension in Edmundson’s writing and Dove’s direction does not utilise the wide spaces in a way which enhances or accentuates the dark, brooding and Machiavellian aspects of the religious politics and the dogma dissection.
