Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, 10 September 2011, and touring

RAUNCHY or what? Scottish Opera’s new small-scale touring production reached new heights, or should that be plumbed new depths, as much of the action took place in the underworld?

Strictly speaking this fresh staging of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld is a co-production with the newly formed Northern Ireland Opera. The production team, under the leadership of Oliver Mears, and several of the main roles came from the Irish side of the partnership, but the style and experience, as well as the musical and financial contributions came from Scottish Opera.

Jane Harrington as Eurydice and Nicolas Sharratt as Orpheus (photo Tommy Ga-Ken wan)

Eighteen venues in Scotland will be visited, mostly with the brilliant piano only accompaniment, before everyone crosses the water for a tour of five venues in Northern Ireland with Scottish Opera’s chamber orchestra. The run will come to an end with eight performances at the beginning of December at the Young Vic in London.

Jacques Offenbach’s comic operetta is to all intents and purposes a very blatant political satire. Back in 1858 Orpheus in the Underworld poked merciless fun at the immoral carrying on of the ruling classes of the French Second Empire of Louis Napoleon. By all accounts their behaviour makes today’s celebrity-obsessed culture tame by comparison, but history has rendered the ridicule of 1858 meaningless to the modern audience, so who better than Rory Bremner to ladle the satire back on with a trowel.

In the well established tradition of the celebrity-driven media that states that the truth should never get in the way of a good story, what does it matter that the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice comes from Greek legend, whereas the ancient gods in this farcical romp were all Roman. And what does it matter that in the original myth Orpheus and Eurydice could not tear their loving eyes away from each other whereas now they want a divorce but worry about their reputations.

Anyway, the show started with a modern version of the Greek Chorus popping up all over the theatre trying to find a way onto the stage. This was Public Opinion (Máire Flavin), aka the tabloid newspaper editors whose self-appointed task was to try and control the characters when things became a little too risqué – some hope!

Orpheus in the Underworld is really an operetta rather than a comic opera. The is a large amount of spoken dialogue between the music which is pure food to Rory Bremner’s talents, but also puts the cast’s acting skills to the test when the singing is not there as a screen. Without exception they pass the test with flying colours. Jane Harrington as Eurydice is the archetype Essex girl, Brendan Collins as Jupiter, Daire Halpin as Diana, Gavan Ring as Pluto, all living their parts to the full. Then there is Scottish Opera Emerging Artist Ross McInroy as Pluto’s sidekick John Styx showing immaculate comic timing.

The jokes are topical and stringent, the situations beggar belief. What sort of mind comes up with the idea of edible knickers or a bit of muscaphilia, not to mention scenes of bondage in an opera? The backdrops were straight out of OK! or Hello magazine or from the title page of the News of the Underworld. The gods are bored of their bar in the clouds and are longing for a bit of action at Pluto’s party down in Hades.

The Citz in Glasgow is a lovely old theatre seemingly stuck in a time warp and a perfect setting for this farcical escapade. Immediately after Saturday’s performance I rushed back up the A9 to Eden Court to try to get a ticket for the Inverness performance. Sold Out! And so, dear reader, in case you have a ticket for one of the shows on the tour, I will not give away any of the non-stop jokes, but be prepared to miss half of them as they fly out at you, and be prepared to sit chuckling with delight for a couple of hours. An absolute triumph!

© James Munro, 2011

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