Tides of time: The Return of the Wildman, Thea Smiley
“A merman was caught at Orford in the thirteenth century, and kept for some time; he could not be induced to take an interest in the services of the church,…
The Doctor will see you now: The Curse of the Black Death, UpShoot Theatre Company
Bungay boasts several natural blessings when it comes to the arts. The town itself is of storybook prettiness; its Georgian theatre, sensitively restored in recent years, still has some original…
Treasure in store: A King’s Ransom, Into Opera
It all started with a tweet: in October 2011, Genevieve Raghu realised she had just missed Patrick Hawes’ concert in Norwich the previous week, and tweeted the composer to ask…
Beautiful dreams; The Pedlar of Swaffham, Alan Huckle
In Norfolk, we tend to be quietly, fondly proud of our surroundings – with an emphasis on ‘quietly.’ The tradition of Norfolk understatement is legendary, rivalled only by our keen…
Pick a side: Schutzwall at Tête à Tête
Although opera is traditionally associated with grand narrative structures, sometimes its heightened psychological intensity can be remarkably effective at drawing us into an intimate historical moment, and just keeping us…
Finders keepers: Belongings at Tête à Tête
We gather in a RADA basement to find two double rows of chairs facing one another across a long, thin central space; the layout faintly recalls a train carriage, the…
Love by design: ‘i’ – The Opera, The Waste Paper Opera Company
Not many operas credit their Neural Network Programming: but ‘i’ – The Opera, though recognisably and confidently an opera, thanks Janelle Shane and Dr Amita Kapoor of the University of…
Packing all the punches: Edward Lambert’s The Art of Venus, Tête à Tête
“I have tried to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythological history as a protest against the Government for destroying Mrs Pankhurst, who is the most beautiful…
Glowing with ideas: Simone Spagnolo’s Even you, lights, cannot hear me
On a dark, empty landscape, strewn with white rocks, a two headed creature (baritone James Schouten and mezzo Kate Symonds-Joy, back to back on a rotating rock) sits at a…
Embracing anew: A Fairy Queen at Iford
Director Timothy Nelson has created a new performing edition of Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen for Iford, which picks out the most familiar scenes and divides them into four “Nights” (the Mechanicals’ rehearsal, Oberon…