In this interview Rhys Payne interviews Hamed Amiri writer of The Boy With Two Hearts, adapted by Phil Porter now showing at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff.
You can find out more about the production and book tickets here.
Get the Chance supports volunteer critics like Rhys to access a world of cultural provision. We receive no ongoing, external funding. If you can support our work please donate here thanks.
The Mormons have finally made their journey all the way from Utah and have landed at the Wales Millennium Centre to celebrate their first touring musical in the Donald Gordon auditorium. They bring with them their signature twisted comedy, super catchy musical numbers and (surprisingly) an unreal amount of camp fun! What is probably most important to keep in mind before deciding to watch the show is that it comes from the satirical minds of Trey Parker and Matt Stone (who created South Park the tv series), and Bobby Lopez (who is one of the key writers of Avenue Q the puppet musical) and so this is not a musical for the faint of heart or anyone who is easily offended. There is constant bad language, sexual references and the jokes are usually based on outdated stereotypes who to a modern audience could be teetering on the offensive. It is extremely crude the entire way through and so is clearly meant for a more mature audience. This musical is very clearly a comedy which is shown in the opening moments of the show where all of the Mormons (who are devout members of the church) are all extremely flamboyant and camp! The choreographer Casey Nicholaw and their team had carefully crafted the dance routines in this musical to exaggerate the more effeminate physicality of every performer which let the audience know from the opening number that this was all supposed to be in jest and not an educational show (although their are a few moments where you will learn some new this about this religion) with the character Elder McKinley playing upon this throughout the show (but more on that later!)
The show is based on the very real moment in a Mormon where they are sent out of their mission trips to try and bring new people into the faith. It follows a shining star in the Mormon faith Elder Price, played by extremely talented Robert Colvin, as he is paired with the much more chaotic Elder Cunningham, played by the brilliant Conner Pierson, who are randomly paired together to spend the next two years in Africa specifically Uganda. The conversion trip is met by a lot of backlash for the locals as they have experienced numerous people coming over to try and promote Christianity but leaving the locals in the exact conditions they found them in. I thought that the casting of Rober Colvin as the up and coming leader of the faith Elder Price was fantastic! His physicality, vocals and facial expressions all helped to add to the preppy all-American character and purposefully reduced the amount of sympathy the audience have for the character and instead focuses this onto Elder Cunningham. This character goes through a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the show from when he begins to lose faith in the religion he has been following since a young age, to the anger/frustration at being paired with his eccentric mission partner, to the moments where he is overflowing with arrogance. All these moments were performed beautifully by Robert and really took the audience of a journey with the feelings towards this at times selfish character. I thought that “I Believe” was a highlight for me as Robert seems to excel in and is more confident during the higher sections of his vocal range. This song was structured as an almost detailed list of what Mormons should believe but with sprinkles of comedy throughout.
Despite all this, however, the highlight in this production would have to be Elder Cunningham who was played by the wonderful Connor Peirson. This was an extremely comical role that very much starts off as the punch line of many jokes but by the end because of a very strong and powerful leader. Connor managed to captures the more timid and more energetic moments in the show flawlessly! I thought that his rendition of “Man Up” was incredibly fun and energetic which was the perfect way to end act one. This was a theatrical spectacle with Conner flying across the stage on a moving platform, creating his own magnificent stage lighting and dancing across the stage in the most over-the-top way I have ever seen. Every comedic moment within the song was performed excellently with the audience in hysterics throughout the whole number. Both Elder Price and Cunningham contrasting personalities clashed beautifully together so much so that it made sense why they got on so well by the end of the show. The duet of “you and me (but mostly me)” really showcased the more arrogant side of the former and the side-kick energy and sympathy required for the latter! Cunningham forms a relationship with Nabulungi (played by the incredible Aviva Tulley) who lives in Uganda with her father. These two perform the hilarious “Baptise me” which contains wonderfully awkward sexual energy the audience seemed to eat up every second of it! However, the highlight performance of this character was the song “Sal Tlay Ka Siti” which was flawlessly sung by the clearly very talented vocalist.
I mentioned early about how Elder McKinley, who was played by the incredibly entertaining Jordan Lee Davies, really leaned into the more camp elements of the musical. In fact, this is the only character that openly talks about being, I suppose you would call it, an ‘ex-gay’ member of the church. However, this character showcase a lot of ‘fruity’ behaviour which does make the audience wonder if the “turn it off” method actually works. Jordan performed this role with all the fun and energy it deserved and stay in character the entire time even stealing focus when they weren’t even speaking. McKinley alongside his wonderful gaggle of dancing moments were brilliant fun throughout and I thoroughly enjoyed “Turn it off” especially the magical costume change and tap number that occurred about halfway through the number!
Overall this was a very energetic, entertaining and fun musical that was crammed full of catchy musical numbers. If you have a darker sense of humour then I would strongly recommend this show for you but if you are even the slightest bit easily offend it’s probably not one for you. The audience were on hysterics throughout the majority of the show which made for a very relaxed environment. I would rate this show 4 out of 5 stars!
The Sherman Theatre is well and truly Back in Play! The festival, which has everything from stand up to monologues to young writers showcases (all done in short form to allow you to safely see as much or as little on offer as you like), is headlined by ‘Radical Reinventions’, four short plays which put a new spin on a classic work of literature. (Hamlet is a F&£$boi and The Messenger, which both reinvent works by Shakespeare, premiered earlier this week).
The Sherman always has a knack for getting at the sinew and bones of a story, and this series is no exception. Performed in a socially distanced and visually striking cabaret setting (imagine that the Phantom of the Opera designed a circus tent and you’re halfway there), The Love Thief and Tilting at Windmills are two joyously irreverent and transcendent plays which argue that, while love may seem futile and dreams impossible, the adventure makes them worth the risk.
The Love Thief is written and performed by Rahim El Habachi and directed by Nerida Bradley, and is based on Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound. Dressed in flames, Prometheus steals love instead of fire and gives it to humanity so they can love whomever they love regardless of gender. El Habachi, an actor and belly dancer, commands the stage from the second he appears – sensual, ethereal and lyrical, he relays his story like the Emcee via Elvira, all mischief and mysticism. The play gives a god’s eye view of modern Britain, its imperial ghosts and their ungodly scions who make it their life’s work to make life difficult for anyone they deem to be ‘different’. It also highlights the personal toll of activism, and how important it is to fight the tide of hatred and bigotry even when it threatens to consume you.
Tilting at Windmills is written and directed by Hannah McPake and performed by Mared Jarman, and is based on Miguel de Cervantes’ The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha. Jarman is chaotic, heroic and mesmeric, gallantly sprinting around like Lancelot on a sugar rush. Using basic props and a whole lot of chutzpah (not to mention a rollicking Knights of Cydonia needle drop), Don Quixote and Sancho Plant-za attempt to squeeze a near-one-thousand-page book into a breathless (and hilariously meta-textual) thirty minutes. Cervantes makes an appearance as a Zardoz-like disembodied voice that boasts of his own greatness – opening up interesting avenues of the dialogue between authors and those adapting and performing their work, and how radically reinventing a text is what keeps it fresh, alive and relevant.
Ultimately, Prometheus has to decide whether hope is worth all the pain and the not knowing whether things will ever get better, and Quixote/Mared has to decide whether to stay in the fantasy or live in the real world. And yet, neither choice is a binary between staying or going, fantasy or reality. There will always be pain, and uncertainty – but there will always be hope, fun, and magic, hidden between the margins.
The Sherman is most definitely Back in Play and back to stay!
Back in Play season at the Sherman Theatre: 8 – 30 October
Review by
Barbara Hughes-Moore
Get the Chance supports volunteer critics like Barbara to access a world of cultural provision. We receive no ongoing, external funding. If you can support our work please donate here thanks.
Company of Sirens make a dynamic return to Chapter with Hitchcock Redux, two short plays that explore the elusive power of real (and reel) memories. Written and directed by Chris Durnall and funded by Arts Council of Wales/National Lottery, Hitchcock Redux dramatises and meditates on two traumatic events in Durnall’s life and the Hitchcock films with which are intertwined.
In the first play, Twelve Cabins Twelve Vacancies, Durnall recounts the time when, while watching the first television broadcast of Hitchcock’s Psycho in 1968, he learned that his father had died. The two are forever connected in his consciousness, and memories of both are shaped and distorted by each other. The second play, Souvenirs of a Killing, explores the tragic abduction and murder of a friend in 1973, the trauma of which is embodied and underscored by the film Vertigo. Both plays are performed by Durnall and Angharad Matthews (who also designed the set and costumes), and feature original music composed and performed live by Eren.
Twelve Cabins premiered onstage in 2019, and was performed along with Souvenirs online in March of this year. The lyrical writing and pensive performances resonated even through the screen – but onstage they are brought to vivid, visceral life. The sense of place, space and movement is powerful: Durnall moves as though monumentalised in grief, shifting between joyous reminiscence and solemn contemplation; Matthews moves ethereally, as light dances on the surface of rippling water; and the immersive music, composed and performed live by Eren, moves between original compositions and evocations of Hermann that cage the characters in a spiralling static state.
The women in Psycho and Vertigo are portrayed with more empathy in those films (and in these plays) than Hitchcock showed the actresses portraying them. Women encased in amber, both celluloid and corporeal, are objectified through movies and memories, their losses mourned through the membrane of grief and fiction. Durnall speaks not for them, but through them, their voices reanimated but recounted, living only through scribbled words on cigarette boxes (a subtly gorgeous image).
The set is plaintively sparse, evoking the ways in which the backgrounds of memories are often shadowed, blurred, or absent altogether; sometimes a face, a dress, a glance, is all we remember. Examining a memory can tarnish it, like buffing a broken mirror – it just makes the cracks cut deeper. In a piece for the Wales Art Review, Durnall argues that the (fictional) films and the (real life) losses ‘have become so inextricably linked with those moments that they have become artistic metaphors for the events themselves’. Whether watching scenes play out on a television set, or re-enacting Hitchcock’s dialogue, Psycho and Vertigo become a prism through which grief is reflected and refracted, and provide a kind of closure which is not always found in life.
The search for closure is a sentence which Hitchcock Redux leaves incomplete – purposefully so, because closure is by nature perpetually unfinished. But it also leaves you with the drive not only to explore your own connections between art and grief and memory, but the tools you’ll need along the way. Striking, pensive and poignant, it does not ask you to take the first step – it merely opens the door.
Hitchcock Redux is playing at Chapter through 16 October
Direct from the West End, the award-winning Mischief Theatre crew is back in Cardiff with a raucous new comedy. Groan Ups follows five characters through the trials and tribulations of primary school, high school, and the inevitable reunion years later when these supposed grownups dig up old rivalries, flirtations, and secrets thought long left on the playground.
Written by Mischief stalwarts Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, and directed by Kirsty Patrick Ward, Groan Ups is further proof the energy and creativity of Mischief Theatre is unmatched. Eschewing improv for dramedy, the ensemble has crafted a gleefully anarchic and surprisingly sweet show buoyed by an incredibly game cast. There’s Lauren Samuels as conscientious Katie, Dharmesh Patel as naughty Spencer, and Daniel Abbott as sweet, shy Archie, who becomes Spencer’s ride or die after an I, Spartacus moment with a dead hamster. Completing the quintet is nerdy Simon (Matt Cavendish) who obsessively and unrequitedly adores popular posh girl Moon (Yolanda Ovide).
We follow this famous five through three key stages in their lives: when they’re chaotic and demanding at age 6, angsty and hormonal at age 14, and regressive and regretful at age 30. The cast excellently evoke these different ages: Dharmesh Patel nails the faux-casual bravado of the teenage boy while Lauren Samuels plays a pitch perfect precocious toddler always running for teacher when the others misbehave. The ensemble’s effective characterization is buoyed by Fly Davis’ incredible and transportive sets which perfectly conjure the classrooms of your memories, cleverly using scale and exaggerated sizing to capture the feeling of towering over the chairs which once towered over you.
The first half might seem a little much at times, but it’s all brought round so beautifully in the second, with every seemingly-throwaway joke and character beat returned to with added meaning and bigger laughs. The second half also features Jamie Birkett as Chemise, an aspiring actress who Simon hires to play his girlfriend, who damn near stole the show with a single ‘aye’ and our hearts with everything that came after. Killian Macardle also draws laughs as a stern teacher in the first half and an overconfident alum in the second.
It might not quite reach the dizzying heights or the razor-sharp precision of The Play that Goes Wrong – but it doesn’t need to. And it ends on a genuinely meaningful note: the problem is not that we look into the past but that we do so with rose tinted glasses. Memories tend to dull the blade of experience, and Groan Ups captures all the pining, the teasing, and the worrying you’ve tried to forget; all the horror and the beauty of growing up and then realising you never really did. Nostalgia is a trick, because it fools you into believing your best days are behind you – but they are ahead, if you manage to maintain that sense of play and wonder.
Groan Ups concludes that we might not ever truly grow up – but we can grow, if we can keep that youthful sense of hope, fun and possibility. Good comedy is the hardest art form; great comedy is almost impossible. But Mischief have worked their magic once again.
Groan Ups is playing at the New Theatre Cardiff through Saturday 16th October.
Review by
Barbara Hughes-Moore
Get the Chance supports volunteer critics like Barbara to access a world of cultural provision. We receive no ongoing, external funding. If you can support our work please donate here thanks.
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. Itself an imposing building and host to much brilliant theatre and this was no exception as it hosted the first Welsh refugee story to be brought to the stage. The Boy With Two Hearts, is a play based on the book of the same name by local author Hamed Amiri and adapted for stage by Phil Porter.
The scene is set, it is Afghanistan in the year 2000. The Taliban are rapidly taking over the country and imposing intolerable laws, people speak out but sadly to their detriment as Hamed and his family soon discover.
Their lives change overnight and soon begins a race against time to leave their homeland…a race for survival. The play tells the story of how Hamed and his family embarked on their perilous journey to safety, the hardships and the dangers they encountered enroute, the people who were there to take from them what little they had and the humanity shown by others. It portrayed a family bound by love, by commitment to each other and by the courage and determination to succeed.
As the story unfolds we learn about each individual member of the family, their hopes, their desires, their dreams. It gives a realisation that people are the same the world over, all striving for the same things, the right to live a life without fear, without hardship and most importantly of all a life of freedom. During the play we also learn a lot about one of the brothers life-threatening condition and the treatment he so desperately needs.
The acting was incredible, within minutes you were convinced that this was the family themselves and they weren’t actors playing the parts. The set was grimly atmospheric, the addition of the displayed dialogue was genius and the live vocals created a haunting backdrop. The story played on your every emotion, it was heartfelt, thought provoking, humorous, happy, sad…and real. I can say with all honesty that this play not only made me happy and sad in equal measure but left me thinking, it made me realise how little I know about the plight of others and how little I can do to help
The Boy With Two Hearts written by Hamed Amiri, adapted for the stage by Phil Porter. Wales Millennium Centres’ first homegrown production since reopening and the first Welsh refugee story brought to the stage.
This true story moved me to tears, it was one of the most inspirational plays I’ve ever seen. This story could be happening today, with the recent events which has led to the fall of Kabul.
The play was performed by Hassam/Son (Shamail Ali) Hamed/Son (Farshid Rokey) Hussein/son (Ahmed Sakhi) Fariba/Mum (Gehane Strehler) Mohammed/Dad (Dana Haqjoo) and singer Elaha Soroor
In 2000, Hamed Amiri’s family have to leave their home and their life in Herat, Afghanistan. They need protection from the Taliban, who have issued a warrant to execute the mother, Fariba Amiri, for speaking out against the Taliban, demanding freedom for women’s rights. They also need medical help for the oldest son, Hussein, who has a rare, life-threatening heart condition.
Their journey leaving their home, learning to live with nothing, having to spend a long time on the road, never being safe, worrying every day whether they will ever make it to the UK, their “safe haven”, and having to put their lives into the hands of smugglers again and again is heart-breaking, one of many families who have left their lives behind to find safety in Europe and continue to do so.
Clothes hang from rafters above the stage in WMC and a disarray of suitcases and clothing are strewn around the edge of the stage. Creative stage captions set the scene and draw you in to the families fight and struggle but it’s not just about the hardship, it’s about fear, love, family, determination, courage and hope – these are the emotions that ignite a fire inside of you whilst you’re drawn into their powerful story.
The play is split between two emotional, nerve-racking journeys. The first shows the families cold and desperate journey through Moscow and then onto Europe, travelling by hiding in car boots, lowering themselves into the back of a lorry to hide from police and almost suffocating crammed inside a shipping container, without food or drink, however, these are only a small part of the family’s history. Their journey depicts how much they rely on the kindness of strangers, but we also see how so much cruelty while travelling to the UK leaves Hamed mistrustful of others.
The second path they take is through Hassam, Hamed and Hussein’s determination to succeed, once they settle in Cardiff, it also takes us on Hussein’s journey with the healthcare system for the treatment he so desperately needs. The wonderful vocals of Afghan singer Elaha Soroor, drifts on and off the stage throughout the play, observing the family’s’ heartache alongside the audience but also lending her haunting vocals, like death, to accompany the beat of Hussein’s heart, his fight for life and his struggle to breathe. Despite having been through the toughest times one can imagine, Hussein Amiri’s hope and positivity shines so bright and seems to have no ends.
The actors are so skilled at pulling you into every situation they encounter, drawing you into their love for one another and the pain they endure. This story is a moving and absorbing memoir, it is a very emotional love letter to the NHS. It oozes hope, courage and a love for life, it tells the story of how many lives a person can touch in just a short time and deserves to be shown to a very, very wide audience.
(5 / 5)
Personally, it takes a lot for me to be stunned into silence generally especially by a piece of theatre. There is nothing I love more, when within a theatre, than a pre, interval or post-show chat and meeting new people sat around me. My Aunty (who I attend the majority of the shows with) has in fact made a name for herself within the Millennium for chatting to everyone she encounters (usually with me trailing behind) during any break in the show so you can get some sense of how powerful this Wales Millennium Centre commissioned the production of “The Boy with Two Hearts” must have been for every person to be stood applauding at the end of the show (with the majority shedding a tear or two) and for there to be complete and utter silence for a good few minutes during both the interval and end of the show!
Usually, with plays/musicals, the bars and communal spaces in the Centre are filled with a buzz during the interval/at the end of the show, but this time there was a hush where people seemed to be tentatively whispering rather than the loud chatting that usually occurs. This was an emotional night for me before the show even started. The moment that I place my hands on the iconic doors the Wales Millennium Centre, after not being allowed in for almost two years, I was instantly filled with immense happiness as before the lockdowns I would be there two or three times a week but that was quickly stopped with the coronavirus restrictions were announced! Have a big theatre such as the Millennium producing new pieces of theatre truly marks not only the easing of restrictions but also the return of live theatre. However, this emotional revelation did not help or hinder the production I was there to see as I personally believe that I could be before in a field and still have the same emotional impact it possessed!
For the opening moments of this show, it was clear that it is a passion project based on a personal experience. The story is based on its writer Hamad’s own personal experience of fleeing Afghanistan and finding a new home in Cardiff. Throughout the show, we have moments of education regarding religious practises, honest/real portrayals of the journey and moments of comedy which all combine to show an authentic story of finding a refugee. This is something about writing from personal experience that makes storytelling even more powerful! We often hear stories of refugees and their journeys on the news, radio, television etc but we naturally put up a distance between us and ‘those’ people. For this show to show (as it is based on a true story from Cardiff) that it’s not an issue for different people or places, but instead is happening on our doorsteps it truly brings the message home. The issue of seeking refugees does not just apply to faraway lands but affects our friends, neighbours etc.
The show follows the Amari family who are forced to leave Afghanistan after the matriarch of the family (played by the incredibly talented Géhane Strehler) delivers a very controversial speech about the treatment of women in Taliban run countries. (If they had not amped up the emotion enough, before entering the theatre we were made aware that the Amari family who the story is based on where sat in the audience and the writer who is also apart of the same family supposedly watches every single performance.) This speech is controversial for two reasons, firstly it is against the law for women to deliver speeches in Afghanistan but also it is her essentially standing up to the Taliban government. What is very clever about the performance of the speech is that the actual audience are referred to as the audience of the speech (with direct eye contact, Gestures etc) with Géhane seeming to passionately deliver every single word of the speech to a point where I believe that even she felt moved by its words. This idea of carefully and cleverly breaking the fourth wall happens numerous times throughout the show with rotating narrators, being ‘brought in’ as fourth-year medical students and being visitors to a market. The inclusion of the audience only helps the impact of the show as the viewers feel as if they are also in the centre of the story! The rest of the play documents their dangerous and extremely difficult journey to the UK with all the high points and low points being shown.
I thought that the set designed by Hayley Grindle, used for this production featured some of the most ingenious set designs I have seen in a long time. The show opening with phenomenal Eloha Soroor, who performed the majority of the atmospheric music throughout in Farsi with subtitles being showed across a multi-storey structure on the stage. Eloha’s character within the play also acts as an sort of angel of death who is there for the majority of the close calls throughout the show. All of her appearances in the show are purposeful and her attention is always on the characters that she could be collecting soon. I think that all of the actors in this show (including Shamail Ali, Dana Haqjoo, Farshid Rokey and Ahmad Sakhi) all deserve incredible praise for bringing this story to life in a very accessible and real way! Also, the performers swap roles throughout the show which often means completely different accents, demeanours and physicality with all performances being very believable! Being able to switch literally in front of the audience’s eyes and then to be able to easily follow the story and characters takes a lot of skill/talent so every performer deserves the highest of praise. The levels also had screens that would demonstrate the change of location, weather etc with carefully selected animated images. One particular moment stands out for me where the set is transformed into a defibrillator and the screen displayed the word shock after loading up with blue light which I thought was a very clever way to show what was going on. These panels and screen also move which comes in handy during points in the show were the character were crammed into the back of cars , lorry’s etc which looked absolutely amazing and the choreography of getting into these spaces being amazing to watch.
Another misconception that this show addresses is the idea that refugees simply jump on a boat to sail to the UK and simply leave because they just want to live somewhere else. It is so much more than just sailing away to find a new home and any person who takes this treacherous journey to possible receive a better life for themselves or their children deserve at the bare minimum your respect! The show is also an almost love letter to the NHS as one of the main motivators for the Amari family coming to the UK is due to our incredible health service.
Overall this is an extremely poignant and powerful play that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout! It highlights the dangerous journey that many refugees which clearly surprises many people who watch it. I have never seen a piece of theatre move as many people at once like “The Boy with Two Hearts” did and I personally believe that everyone needs to see this show at some point. It should be shown to school learners above key stage 5 and the entire adult population as everyone will learn something and be moved by its emotional power! This is absolutely a 5 out of 5 show!
You can find out more about the production and book tickets here
(3 / 5)
In this small upstairs theatre, we are taken back to childhood and enter the classroom of Miss Margarida.
Based on the original play by Brazilian playwright Roberto Athayde in 1971, the play sees us degraded, bullied, bombarded by two Miss Margarida’s who, are not by any stretch of the imagination, model teachers. There is a sense of oppression, and this is what Athayde had meant for: a satire on the dictatorship in his country, formulating this insistence from an early age in society.
5Go have decided to split the character of Miss Margarida, mirroring one another but in some moments showing some kind of alter-ego; not much different from each other but often one is highly sexually charged, the other much the disciplinarian. There is a lonely school boy on stage – often positioned in previous version within the audience, he takes a small but central role in Miss Margarida’s affections and spite. However, having him on stage but the Miss Margaridas mostly addressing us felt a little disconnected and would have helped the fourth wall break if he sat with us or not be there at all, as majority of the insults were thrown our way, but not his.
Unaware of this play before entering, I did wonder what I would encounter. When 2 hours of insults, of repetition on sexual education, on religion could sound tedious, it was very easy to watch and often provided comical moments, mostly at the audacity and sheer gumption of Miss Margarida and her opinions and views; I imagine, exactly how Athayde intended the play. It flowed smoothly, picking up and becoming hyperreal in moments, making this timeless and appropriate for any era, not just in Brazil in the 1970’s. We feel very under-fire, very spotlighted, sometimes quite literally with lights shined upon us, often something felt with oppression. But it did take some time to change tact, which is perhaps a criticism more of Athayde’s writing than it is of this production.
Miss Margardia’s Way by 5GO is well constructed, delivered well but there are moments of disconnect between audience interaction and the characters as well as taking quite a lot of time to pick up momentum in the narrative.
(2.5 / 5)
After the long 18-month pause due to the pandemic, the Welsh National Opera comes back with a Barber of Seville that is plagued by odd production choices but ultimately rescued by some strong performances. The WNO rehashes Giles Havergal’s 35-year-old production that has all the action confined into a small compact set to give the impression of a travelling theatre company. The elements of meta-theatre, actors congratulating each other and the ‘special effects’ of wind and thunder performed on stage, are a little too trite. The faded colours and claustrophobic nature of the two-floor set do a disservice to the brilliance and energy of Rossini’s masterpiece. The confined space also impedes the movement of the performers significantly.
Sung in English, the Barber loses its spirit and kick. Nicholas Lester, as Figaro, was disappointing and uncomfortable with a truly awkward English translation by Robert David Macdonald. Nico Darmanin’s Almaviva was also unimpressive. This struggling Barber was rescued by Heather Lowe’s Rosina and Andrew Shore as Dr Bartolo, both giving excellent and funny performances. Heather Lowe’s coloratura mezzo soprano is agile and strong. She delivers with confidence a rounded performance. Keel Watson also gave a strong performance as Don Basilio.
The irrepressible fun and joy of Rossini’s Barber is here constrained. Some strong performances breathe life into the WNO’s Barber and give the audience a pleasant but unsatisfying welcome back to theatre.
