Orpheus review, Battersea Arts Centre

So much of live performance depends on the audience. So it was that returning for a reprise of Little Bulb Theatre's gloriously funny Orpheus, it wasn't that funny at all. The audience this evening was heavy on teens,  including my companion. Few got the joke that we were watching Dominic Conway playing Django Reinhardt playing Orpheus, and Eugenie Pastor playing Yvctte Pepin - a hootingly moving French chanteuse - playing Eurydice. This conceit drives the humour, but as nobody picked up on it the room was still, and this drew out the tragedy. And it was magic. So there we are.

The story is well known. Eurydice marries the poet Orpheus, but dies almost instantly from a snake bite. Orpheus, crazed with grief, travels to the Underworld to plead with Hades and Persephone for his wife's return. Hades agrees that Eurydice can return to the real world if Orpheus leads her out without looking back. If he turns before she crosses the threshold of two worlds, he will not see her again... And of course he does. This is all laid out in the first few minutes in a beautifully sung prologue, but it still hits you in the heart when it happens and Eurydice is parted forever from her silent beau.

It's a bit bonkers to stage a Greek myth through the prism of European divas, especially when delivered through the mixed mediums of opera, gypsy guitar, classical piano, and torch songs by a cast who are simultaneously acting and singing and playing instruments, recreating forests and glades, Hades, the River Styx, Ceberus, a giant snake, and the streets and nightclubs of Paris; but it works. The musicianship is top dollar as is the generosity of the performers: the twenty minute interval is followed by half an hour of entertainment before the second half begins. Even at the end, one feels the cast can hardly bear to let go. It's a wonderful couple of hours in a wonderful space.

In conclusion: Whether it's a comedy or a tragedy night, Orpheus is a cracking entertainment. The company comprises the eccentric Pastor; three beautiful sopranos - Miriam Gould, Clare Beresford and Shamira Turner; heart-stopping contralto, Tom Penn; brilliant pianist, Charlie Penn: Dominic Conway, superb on guitar; and the glue is actor/director Alexander Scott.

References
Battersea Arts Centre, tickets


Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TN. Run ends 17 May