Intelligent Opera at the King’s Head, London
The Laurence Olivier award for best opera in 2010 went not to a production at Covent Garden or the ENO but the Operaupclose’s ‘La Boheme’ which started life in a small room above the Cock Tavern in Kilburn, transferred to the excellent Soho Theatre in Dean Street, and then back for more sell-out performances at the Cock.
The Company has produced several more small operas in the space of very few months. Most of them are at London’s only fringe opera space, the King’s Head in Islington and currently showing is an absorbing Pagliacci, not only beautifully sung but wonderfully acted as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Olivier award for 2011 didn’t go to the same company, that is unless the big guns get lobbying.
Check out the King’s Head’s website for the full programme of innovative and intelligent operas.
Jeannette Nelson, Theatre Critic
Jeannette is a bit of a culture vulture who enjoys art exhibitions, cinema and classical music, but her main interest is the theatre. For several years she ran theatre discussion groups for which her MA in Modern Drama together with teaching skills stood her in good stead. She prefers to concentrate on the many off West End and fringe productions as well as that real treasure of the London theatre scene, the National.
London Pub Theatre
Why traipse into the West End and pay those impossible West End prices when for less than half the cost you can spend a wonderful evening out in an intimate space. You can even enjoy a delicious Loseley icecream in the interval for a mere £1.50! Currently showing is ‘A Slice of Saturday Night’, an 80s musical about the 60s which is absolutely great. Watch out for ‘Troy Boy’, a reworking of Offenbach’s ‘La Belle Helene’, in the weeks to come.
With the first rows of the audience almost sitting on the playing space (and those in the back rows not that far behind) it certainly was up close! With handsomely rewritten lyrics transporting the hovel in Paris to a typical student digs near you and talented fresh-faced young singers delivering them, it really was a wonderful experience. The ‘coup de theatre’ was performing the second act, which takes place in a tavern, in the public bar of the pub itself. I think that by the time I saw the production (back there for a second run by popular demand), the locals had got used to the strange goings on in their pub, but I’d have liked to have seen one of the earlier performances!
So, there are some thoughts on what’s struck me as interesting. But if you’ve got a local pub that has been enterprising enough to use some of its space for theatrical endeavours, why don’t you check it out sometime. I’d be surprised if you were disappointed!
Jeannette is a bit of a culture vulture who enjoys art exhibitions, cinema and classical music, but her main interest is the theatre. For several years she ran theatre discussion groups for which her MA in Modern Drama together with teaching skills stood her in good stead. She prefers to concentrate on the many off West End and fringe productions as well as that real treasure of the London theatre scene, the National.