MIRROR MIRROR

MIRROR MIRROR

Charles Court Opera at the King's Head Theatre

08.12.15

for Remote Goat

It's not every panto that opens Act Two with a funeral. But that's typical of the alternative take on the genre offered by Charles Court Opera. This is their ninth “boutique pantomime”, decamped for the first time to the King's Head.

John Savournin's script has plenty of weird and wonderful twists – Snow White is the widow of the late great Barry – who flies in for a guest appearance. And following a “cease and desist” from the Disney Corp the dwarfs are carefully re-christened: Gleeful, Crabby and poor old hippy Half Baked, blown to bits just before the interval.

But there's plenty of traditional festive fun – familiar jokes [tainted money, full frontal lobotomy, we were so poor, a warm hand on your entrance …] and even a bake-off food fight escalating from mini buns to cream pies. An eclectic clutch of songs, too, the lyrics re-worked by Savournin's co-writer and MD David Eaton. Reach For The Stars, A Natural Woman and of course Man In The Mirror. Plus a brilliant One Day More mash-up. Since this is an opera company, we're treated to marvellous unplugged voices, too.

Andrea Tweedale opens the show – after a snatch of prog-rock Polovtsian – as the Wicked Queen, Matthew Kellett plays all of the little people, Nichola Jolley is Harry, the valet turned frog footman, Amy J Payne makes a superb Larry, the Black Prince of Pretzel in a prominent purple cod-piece and Savournin himself plays a wonderful dame Snow White, squeezed like Alice into the bijou dwarf house [William Fricker's delightful design]. Their cross-dressed Aretha Franklin duet one of many priceless highlights.

The script is sparing with the topical/local references, though we do get the Garden Bridge, and a couple of Frozen gags. The space is ingeniously used, with the vast mirror concealing the dwarf kitchen and the forest, and the furry critters of the chorus popping up from windowsill and suitcase.

As usual, a brilliant blend of the familiar and the fantastic, “shimmering and glimmering” at the King's Head well into the New Year.

TRIAL BY JURY / THE ZOO

TRIAL BY JURY / THE ZOO

Charles Court Opera at the King's Head Islington

19.04.15

for Remote Goat

Trial by television ? Only a matter of time before, US-style, justice as entertainment comes to British screens.

One step ahead, as usual, Charles Court Opera's Trial By Jury [Court on Camera], has a floor-manager/usher warming up the jury [that's us on the King's Head benches] and flashing signs for applause and boos.

WS Gilbert meets Jeremy Kyle, with the Plaintiff and her friend as gormless Essex girls [“Come on Ange, do the dance !”], the bone-headed “bad lot” Defendant from the Arcadian vale of Peckham. These “very strange proceedings” also feature an unexpectedly bewigged, unconventionally robed judge, who, true to Gilbert's original, rises to the top by wedding the elderly ugly daughter of a rich attorney, and solves the judicial dilemma by marrying Angelina herself.

Faultless, achingly funny performances from a cast of seven, director John Savournin as the learned judge, Matthew Kellett as the besotted Clerk of the Court, David Menezes as the yobbish Defendant, Philip Lee as Plaintiff's Council, Amy J Payne as the strident Usher. And, best of all, Catrine Kirkman as the truculent bride-to-be, visibly a little late for her white wedding, and Nichola Jolley as her bridesmaid/best mate, the current object of the Defendant's attentions.

Musically, it's superbly done – the “Nice Dilemma” septet just one example – with David Eaton at the pub upright.

Trial by Jury is preceded here by The Zoo, another one-acter from the same year [1875] but with Gilbert replaced by “Bolton Rowe”. A revelation for many of us, coming up very fresh in this lively production. Like Trial, it's set in the present day, with the absurdities all the more entertaining for being in modern dress.

The comedy more memorable than the score, perhaps, though the love duets and the “Fare Thee Well” ensemble are lovely. The Duke of Islington in disguise [Savournin] working his way through the patisserie as he courts his Eliza [Jolley], Aesculapius Carboy the splendidly named apothecary and his Laetitia [Menezes and Kirkman], both equally geeky, with matching elastoplastered specs.

And her unlikely progenitor, bullish Mr Grinder [Kellett].

As in Trial by Jury, the happy-ever-after dénouement is “managed by a job” - and a good job too !

This delectable double bill, a welcome revival, plays at the King's Head until May 10.

PATIENCE

PATIENCE

Charles Court Opera at the King's Head Theatre

19.06.2014

for Remote Goat

Through the crowded Victorian bar at the King's Head – World Cup misery on the big screens – to another, secret bar out the back . Dartboard on the wall, Adnam's on tap, totally lifelike [all credit to production designer Simon Bejer]. Only the adverts for ghoulish cocktails and poetry readings give a hint of pleasures to come, as Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience is dusted off and updated, tweaked and tactfully trimmed.

John Savournin's brilliantly bold concept takes Castle Bunthorne and rebadges it as The Castle, the village local where the eponymous Patience is the barmaid. The lovesick – sorry, melancholic – maidens are impeccably dressed a la Goth, as they sit on bar stools, knock back the spirits, and sigh and pine for the attentions of fleshly poet Reginald Bunthorne.

Sullivan's score is respectfully treated in the reduction for David Eaton's grand piano [no pub upright for him], and the singing, viscerally vivid in this intimate space, is superb throughout. The “Old Old Love” sestet just one example of melodic delight, with the manly tenor of David Menezes' Duke soaring above the rest.

David Phipps-Davis is wonderful value as a florid, self-absorbed poet – black rose, purple eye-shadow, nicely contrasted with the Greek God picturesque perfection of Henry Manning's Idyllic rival. Joanna Marie Skillett [Cinders last Christmas] is a lively, Nordic Patience. And contralto Amy J Payne [another panto survivor] is a huge hit with the audience as Lady Jane. No cello, alas, but a beautifully done “ageing” Aria, nobly resisting the crisps behind the bar.

Hilarious team-work, and perfect patter, from the Dragoons, Michael Kerry's Major and especially Giles Davies's spiffing Colonel Calverley.

Cheeky concessions to the 21^st century include Grosvenor's transformation into a “TK Maxx young man”, with melancholics Helen Evora and Andrea Tweedale becoming thoroughly modern maidens to match. Nothing too incongruous, and all in the spirit of Gilbert, who would, had he lived long enough, have very happily rhymed Sartre with Sinatra.

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE

THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE

Charles Court Opera at The King's Head Theatre

07.09.2012

for The Public Reviews

Charles Court Opera's compact, pocket-sized Pirates is set in a child's bedroom – rocking horse, toy box, pirate ship on the bookshelf – and a window prominent downstage left.

Enter through it, not Peter Pan, but Captain Hook, or his Pirate King lookalike, played here with a nod to Fawlty and boundless brio by John Savournin, who also directed this hugely entertaining operetta. Followed, over the course of the action, by other "mad intruders", none madder than Amy J Payne's gurning, scheming Ruth, a superbly sustained comic creation. In a less promising role, Matthew Kellett is hilarious as Samuel, especially when he masquerades as a police constable, sidekick to Simon Masterson-Smith's hangdog Sergeant.

Since this is a reduced production, that's about the size of the Force, and Major-General Stanley, like Lear, has just three daughters. Ian Jervis's take on this iconic role is traditional but totally engaging; I loved his nightshirt with the uniform braid. His three little maids are beautifully characterized, with Charlotte Baptie's Edith and Nichola Jolley's Kate the gorgeous ugly sisters to Alexandra Hutton's Cordelia, a wonderfully entrancing Mabel. Their entrance, and her big number, are creatively choreographed: the girls are constantly on the move, without missing a beat of the intricate score. I've often heard Poor Wandering One as exquisitely sung, but never seen it so well interpreted dramatically. Hutton is well matched by her Slave of Duty – Kevin Kyle's dashing Frederick, a splendid Savoyard tenor.

Vocally, the whole cast is impeccable. Oh Poetry sounds incredible as a septet, and the piano reduction for four hands is played with panache by the Eaton-Young duo, of which the MD David Eaton is half, with répétiteur James Young sharing the stool.

Savournin's production is witty and fresh, but no liberties are taken either with Gilbert or with Sullivan, though the tongue does sometimes stray towards the cheek. Indeed, the satire comes up very sharp, the Death and Glory ensemble underlined, in a touch of pure genius, by spelling out key words with alphabet blocks from the toybox – a great idea deftly executed. And how refreshing to be in a G&S audience – packed out on Press Night - where so many are clearly coming to the show for the first time: the bons mots new-minted, the paradox and the plot twists delightfully unexpected. And for all of us, the grime of years and the layers of varnish are stripped away, revealing the sparkling masterpiece beneath.

This enterprising company has already given its Pinafore and its Mikado. Plenty more fish in the Savoy Opera sea – Patience next, perhaps ?

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews

HANSEL AND GRETEL

HANSEL AND GRETEL

Open Door Opera at the King's Head Theatre Islington

19.12.2011

for The Public Reviews

This much-loved fairytale opera had very domestic origins. In recent years various regietheater interpretations have lost sight of these roots, so it is good to see the folky, child-centred focus restored in this lovely pocket version.

Valentino Monticello's Act One backcloth makes the point. Here, in picture book colours, are books on shelves, with Pinocchio and the Angels as book-ends, a roaring fire and above it a painting of the gingerbread house in the woods.

This is an intimate opera house, so we're close enough to count the stitches in Gretel's knitting. The major strength of this production is the casting and direction of the title roles. Laura Kelly's Hansel is a sulky boy, a reluctant dancer at first; Danae Eleni's domestic Gretel chides and cajoles him. The dance sequence, so often twee and tedious, is full of fun and character here. They both sing their roles beautifully, their two voices, carefully tempered to the tiny venue, blend well. And they act every second of the score – gobbling strawberries, scoffing marshmallows, licking up the cream, sharing a broomstick to fly off home at the end.

I enjoyed Ian Massa-Harris's Little Britain witch, too, creepily menacing in his cardie and specs, greedily eyeing the oven-ready lost children.

While Janet A N Fischer made a believable mother, scolding one moment, desperately praying the next, Ian Wilson-Pope seemed uncomfortable, dramatically and vocally, in the role of the drunken broom-seller.

The immortals made the most of their brief moments – Rosalind Coad's Sandman, with her gold dust and nightcap, and especially Alexandra Stevenson's hungover party-girl Dew Fairy, clutching her golden shoes – a lovely conceit.

Not every aspect of Lewis Reynolds' production was as inspired as this – like his lively new libretto, it was patchy. The food parcels were particularly unconvincing, and it would have been nice to have a scarier oven for the gingerbread – a red glow, a little smoke, a panto flash ...

And of course we miss the orchestration [and the chorus] too, though Kelvin Lim was superb at the King's Head piano.

There were a few children in the audience on Press Night – I'd like to think more Islington families would take advantage of this very accessible, over-by-bedtime show. There was plenty of magic, and not a few thrills, both musical and dramatic, to keep the youngsters amused and the grown-ups entertained.

this piece first appeared on The Public Reviews