Guest blog by Damien O’Keeffe
How do you get young children and their families into opera? Firstly by calling it music theatre and, secondly, by basing the show on a deliciously naughty set of stories for children of all ages.
Using Hilaire Belloc’s classic verses, Opera North have created a wonderfully anarchic and playful production that kept a roomful of young children and their not so young parents enthralled and entertained. The Cautioners, dressed in academic robes and mortar boards, enter the set to a ringing school bell and immediately interact with the audience as if they were a classroom full of naughty children. The clever set, comprising school desks, a coffin-like trunk, and an array of ladders reaching up to the ceiling, is littered with little playthings; a reel of string, a telephone, a hot air balloon. The effect is of a bizarre yet enticing playground, and the four talented performers certainly relish the opportunities to play.
In a collection of brilliantly mis-matched costumes, Katherine Broderick, Alison Kettlewell, Mark Le Brocq, and Geoffrey Dolton, create a range of grotesque and detailed characters. They segue effortlessly between playing children and adults as the tales of Rebecca, Matilda, Jim, Henry King, and George unfold (or in one case unravel) before us. Adapter and director of the piece, Pia Furtado, has raided the secret store of theatrical styles as well as Opera North’s costume box to create something that is both magical and macabre at the same time. Imagine Monty Python, Music Hall, German Expressionism, Victoriana and Ozzy Osbourne locked in a nursery toy box, and you begin to get some idea of the flavour of the production.
The score by Erollyn Wallen is suitably eclectic, ranging from solemn Requiem to stadium rock fit for a Lycra-clad lion (no, seriously! A show stealing turn from Mark Le Brocq in a shaggy wig and turquoise jumpsuit) Whilst the trio of excellent musicians play just to the side of the stage area, the singers confidently and charmingly handle the quirks and turns of the songs. Like a chorus of commedia clowns, they work brilliantly as an ensemble, timing every twitch, sneer and double-take to the music. Although, perhaps, a little too dark for the very young, any child over five would enjoy the witty staging and visual inventiveness of the show.
Cautionary Tales showed at various places during March, Damien saw it at Square Chapel Centre for the Arts in Halifax