The Production

“This production follows a similar approach to our award-winning staging of Greek – the orchestra takes pride of place on stage, participating in every moment as players and observers. They perform alongside a cast of flamboyant theatrical performers, playing multiple roles with relish and passion, switching from comedy to pathos and from passionate engagement to cool narration. And all the while the opera reveals the potential horrors facing those who seek refuge in foreign lands, notably our own Western and supposedly civilised society.

This opera should have you laughing one moment and despairing the next. Our approach is to revel in the vital and virtuosic score which animates the drama, and to first present the singers as performers who introduce the characters they are about to play. We want to draw people into a world that is at first slapstick and fun but which turns distinctly nasty, not least with the fable of the Cricket and the Ant which starts in the land of storytelling but quickly gets mixed up in the cruel world surrounding the restaurant.”

Michael McCarthy, Director