THE STORY OF BILLY BUDD, SAILOR - REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Billy Budd is a fictitious character created by Herman Melville in an unfinished novella known as Billy Budd, Sailor. It drew much literary attention competing with the author’s much more famous Moby Dick. Benjamin Britten was drawn to the story and composed an opera based on a libretto in four acts by E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier that opened in 1951. It was rewritten as a two-act opera that premiered in 1960.

Like all good stories, Billy Budd is based on a simple story that opens much more when pondered. Billy Budd is a young, innocent, decent and handsome young man who is “impressed” (taken by force) as a sailor on The Indomitable, a warship. He encounters decency and evil, hatred and malice and eventually is convicted and sentenced to death in accordance with articles of war.

Oliver Leith did the musical adaptation. Ted Huffman did the stage direction, adaptation, costume design and accessories. The two have syncopated Britten’s work into a chamber opera that ten singers who perform all the roles play all the instruments in the intimacy of the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-de-Provence. They deliver a captivating 140 minutes of opera that is emotionally intense and gripping.

The story begins with Captain Edward Fairfax Vere (Christopher Sokolowski who also plays Squeak), a naval officer and man of culture, as an old man recalling the events of his life, struggling with his conscience and remembering the story of Billy Budd. We then go back to 1797 on the deck of The Indomitable where the decent Billy Budd encounters the ship’s Master-at-arms John Claggart (Joshua Bloom who also plays Dansker), an evil man. This is where we go beyond the story of one man but are forced to think about good and evil, justice and injustice and innocence and corruption. 

Scene from The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor. 

Photo: © Jean-Louis Fernandez

Claggart plots to destroy Billy Budd, and he plots against him including attempting to bribe him into starting a mutiny. He brings Budd in front of Vere on trumped up charges and the innocent sailor is so shocked that he cannot utter a word. Billy Budd has a terrible stammer and is unable to speak under pressure. Vere is forced to condemn Budd to death, and he is hanged on the ship’s deck in a terrifically staged scene that that leaves you stunned. 

Baritone Ian Rucker as Billy Budd vocally exudes the innocence, eagerness and humanity of the young sailor. He knows that he is innocent even if in a moment of anger, he struck Claggart who died from the blow. The punishment for striking an officer is death and Billy Budd takes the inevitable punishment with grace. A wonderful performance. 

The venomous Claggart is performed with exceptional malice by bass Joshua Bloom. He struck me as a man with motiveless malignity, a description someone coined about the villainous Iago, Othello’s destroyer.  

Tenor Sokolowski’s Captain Vere presents perhaps the most interesting character because he represents more than just the events of 1797. He straddles the moral code of the warship with the knowledge of later reflection of what he did. Did he lack the moral backbone to refuse to execute an innocent man? Is he trying to salve his conscience in old age? It is a subject for discussion that Sokolowski sings so eminently well in his performance of the role.

The musicians deserve a special bow. Finnegan Downie Dear, conductor and keyboards, Richard Gowers, keyboards, Siwan Rhys, keyboards and George Barton, percussion. They are on stage behind the singers ready to lend a hand, when necessary,
A superb syncopation and presentation of Benjamin Britten’s opera.
__________
The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor  by Ted Huffman and Oliver Leith after Benjamin Britten played four times until July 10, 2024, on various dates at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

 James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

LA CALISTO – REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The Aix-en-Provence Festival offers a beautiful production of La Calisto, Francesco Cavalli’s 1651 wonderful opera at the Théâtre de l’Archevêchê. It is splendidly sung accompanied by the orchestra conducted by Sebastien Daucé and directed by Jetske Mijnssen. It has magnificent sets by Julia Katharina Berndt and it all adds up to a marvelous night at the opera. It is done in the open air under the stars and who cares if it starts at 9:30 p.m. and lasts until almost 1:00 in the morning.

La Calisto is based on Greek mythology via Ovid’s Metamorphoses and has a noble theme of saving the world, but the reality is a lot of testosterone-driven gods and mortals, and followers of the goddess Diana. That means virgins, gods and men and a lot of sexual attraction, rejection and tragedy turned into apotheosis.

The main story is about Callisto (Laurenne Oliva), the beautiful nymph and dedicated followers of the goddess Diana (Giuseppina Bridelli), the virgin goddess whose followers are of course virgins. Oliva has a gorgeous voice, and she defines a woman of class and high manners.

Enter Jupiter (Alex Rosen) who wants to save the world but as we know he has more testosterone than sense. He sees Calisto and wants her. She rebuffs him and he wants to rape her. But his companion and son Mercury (Dominic Sedgwick), the god of lies, suggests a gentler method: deceit. Jupiter disguises himself as Diana and approaches Calisto sexually. Calisto responds positively. Kudos to Rosen and Sedgwick as singers and performers. 

But we know that problems are inevitable. First, Calisto approaches the real Diana lovingly and is thrown out of the group of virgin followers. Worse is to come when Juno (Mrs. Jupiter) figures out her husband’s ruse and takes revenge on the poor Calisto but that can wait for a couple of hours. 

Scene from La Calisto,. Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2025 
Photo © Monika Rittershaus

In the meantime, the handsome shepherd Endymion (Paul-Antoine Bénos-Djian) comes looking for Diana. He is madly in love with her, and she loves him but secretly because of her vow of chastity. Linfea (Zachary Wilder), an innocent virgin, has some amorous urges but she knows nothing about men and love. When the Satyr (countertenor Théo Imart) approaches her with a marriage proposal she rejects him, and he is very unhappy about that. The god Pan (tenor David Portillo) is also madly in love with Diana, but he too is rejected. Will Diana relent and accept sexual fulfilment. I won’t tell you everything.

Pan, the Satyr and Silvano (bass-baritone Douglas Ray Williams), decide to spy on Diana to figure out what she is up to! Well, she finds Endymion sleeping and sidles up to him amorously, but the three spying clowns see them. Endymion does not get anything.

We need more complications and some real fury. Who better than the harridan of the mythical world Juno (Anna Bonitatibus). She knows of Jupiter’s debauchery and descends to Earth for the details and revenge. She overhears Calisto's tears and questions her, recognizing in her story her husband's methods. Jupiter appears in the guise of Diana, but Juno recognizes him by the presence of his sidekick Mercury. In short, Juno figures out what her husband is doing.  

La Calisto has a large cast and many of the singers have more than one role. David Portillo sings La Natura. Pan and Furia. Jose Loca Loza plays Silvano and Furia. Imart sings Destino, Satirino and Furia. Bonitatibus is June as well as L’Eternita. Kudos for highest quality singing and acting.

There are amorous, humorous and dramatic complications carried by comic scenes, gorgeous arias and accompanying choral pieces that are a delight to the ear and the eye. 

The set by Berndt consists of a paneled stage with a revolving middle piece. Half of it is an open half circle whereas the other half resembles the rest of the stage. It is effective, practical and beautiful. The costumes by Hannah Clark are just what you expect immortals, nymphs and shepherds to wear. They may look suspiciously like fancy baroque attire but who are we to argue with the gods.

There is the ugly side of the opera where Juno turns Calisto into an ugly animal, a bear according to Ovid. But Fate intervenes and Calisto is turned into an eternal constellation. Jupiter and Callisto come down to earth to say farewell as a celestial choir celebrates the  lovers. And so do we.
_________________________
La Calisto by Francesco Cavalli  opened on July 7 and will be performed a total of eight  times until July 21, 2025, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

DON GIOVANNI – REVIEW OF 2025 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Aix-en-Provence Festival is in full swing for its 77^th season from July 4 to 21, 2025 in a picture-perfect medieval city. Its eclectic program of operas includes Don, Giovanni, an adaptation of Benjamin Britten’s Billy Budd as The Story of Billy Budd, Sailor, Cavalli’s La Calisto, The Nine Jeweled Thief, a new work by Siva Eldar and Ganavya Doraiswamy and Louise.

Don Giovanni is the big, classical opera of the season and it is conducted by the inimitable Simon Rattle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The production is directed by Robert Icke, a brilliant theatre director who is making his debut as a director of opera.

Like all directors, Icke wants to put his own imprimatur on the production, and he does that in spades. There is a wide range of changes, tweaks, adaptations that a director can do even with a work as well known as Don Giovanni. He can dramaturge the libretto and change the era, add or delete characters and change the spirit of the work almost beyond description.

Ickes does all those things, and he adds so many twists that I could hardly keep up with a very familiar libretto. Don Giovanni opens with the dramatic overture, but Icke adds stage action during the playing of it. We see projected on a screen an old man in a room with a chair, table and some stereo equipment. He is trying with difficulty to get some music to play on his system. After a few minutes of trying, he succeeds in getting the overture to Don Giovanni to play. He falls on the ground and we get a closeup of him. He is apparently dead. I assume the old man is Don Giavanni but, by the end of the performance I think it could be the Commendatore. We saw the Commendatore killed in the first scene, but he walked off the stage instead of being carried out. We are used to seeing the Commendatore’s statue thundering in the final scene but according to Icke he makes several appearances during the performance. 

Andrè Schuen , Amitai Pat Photo (© Monika Ritterhaus)

My initial complaint to seeing the Commendatore, if it was him, was that I paid attention to the scene instead of listening to the great overture. The situation became worse when I could not figure out who is who as between Don Givanni and the Commendatore. And that is just the beginning of Icke’s tinkering more accurately bludgeoning Mozart’s and Da Ponte’s work.

Before outlining some other aspects of Icke’s approach, I want to give credit to the performers. I start with the women who excelled in their singing and acting. I start with Golda Schultz as Donna Anna. She is the tricky one who pretends to grieve for her father and is supposed to be engaged to and in love with Don Ottavio, but in fact is in love with Don Giovanni. Gorgeous voice and able to manipulate all situations, Schultz gives a bravura performance.

We note that Donna Anna comes out of her room in the opening scene where she was perhaps raped or at least molested, wearing a gray dress with no evidence of interference. She approaches Don Giovanni lovingly. We get her number.

Kudos to mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena as Donna Elvira. Don Giovanni seduced her and abandoned her and now she wants to find him and tear his heart out unless he comes back. (a slight qualification there). Kozena captures the pain, anger and longing of Donna Elvira as she belts out her complex arias. She expresses her anger as she is searching for Don Giovanni on the street and he “smells” a woman. According to Icke, she is in her bedroom. Sure.

Zerlina (soprano Madison Nonoa) is the pretty peasant girl on her wedding day Zerlina is lovely of voice and face (but not too bright) and she almost falls for Don Giovanni. I think Icke takes her a step further and she kisses him. She knows how to manipulate her nice Masetto (bass Pawel Horodyski) even after he gets a thrashing. Masetto is a peasant, but Icke makes no point of that,

Baritone Andre Schuen as Don Giovanni and bass Krzysztof Baczyk as Leporello make a fine pair of vocal scoundrels, but I am not sure what Icke has in mind about the first. I may well have missed Icke’s point about Don Giovanni but as I said I was following so many confusing strands, his message escaped me. I am still trying to figure out how he got into hospital and ended up running around with a pole for intravenous medication.  

Aside from Masetto, the other nice guy is Don Ottavio (tenor Amitai Pati) who is engaged to Donna Anna. Ottavio gets some beautiful arias expressing ardent love and Pati does a superbly expressive job.

In some scenes videos are projected in the top half of the stage and the bottom looks like a basement. There is frequent use of projections, and it is not always clear what they mean. At one point Leporello leads Donna Elvira from her upper storey apartment and Don Giovanni serenades her maid. Her maid looks like a 10-year-old girl whom we see several times. Is Don Giovanni asking her to dispel his sorrows, and compliments her lips as sweeter than honey and more? The word for this is paedophilia but is that what Icke is getting at? Icke has surpassed all bounds and has gone on an ego trip that has nothing to do with sound directing.

Simon Rattle with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra play Mozart brilliantly despite the confusion on stage and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir handles the choral parts superbly. Don Giovanni is probably indestructible but there are times when Robert Ickes makes you wonder.
_________________________
Don Giovanni by W.A. Mozart opened on July 4 and will be performed eight times until July 18, 2025, at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France. www.festival-aix.com/ 

James Karas is Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE – REVIEW OF 2025 OPERA BASTILLE, PARIS, PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Rossini’s The Barber of Seville is one of the most popular operas in the repertoire which means one has many opportunities to see it. That is enjoyable of course but it may also develop ways of seeing the work and choices by different directors that may raise more eyebrows than cheers of approval.

The Paris National Opera wound up its 2024-2025 season at the Opera Bastille with a production of The Barber conducted by Diego Matheuz and directed by Damiano Michieletto. Matheuz took a deliberate pace where he could, but those patter arias forced breakneck rapidity and he came through.

The singers were popular with the audience. Led by a robust, full-throated baritone Mattia Olivieri as Figaro, tenor Levy Sekgapane as Count Almaviva, mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina as Rosina and bass-baritone Carlo Lepore as Doctor Bartolo they did creditable work in the vocal department.

The issue I have is with Michieletto’s view of the opera and his overall presentation of it. He creates a whole world or at least community for the life of the characters involved in the courtship of Rosina by Count Almaviva. In fact, he goes out of his way to make us see The Barber of Seville in his conception.

It is a modern-dress production and the first thing we see is an ordinary car parked in front of a tenement building. It turns out to be Count Almaviva’s car (I think) and we would have expected him to drive something sporty and hence more expensive, but we let it go by.

But we do pay attention to the building where we know Rosina lives as the ward of the elderly and obnoxious Dr. Bertolo who controls her life and, what is worse, wants to marry the delectable young lady.

Scene from The Barber of Seville, 2025 Opera Bastille, Paris.

They live on three floors of a less than classy building in a less-than-opulent neighborhood created by designer Paolo Fentin. Michieletto and Fentin want us to have a full and frequent view of Bartolo’s residence. The central part of the set revolves so we get a full view of every side of the tenement. The plain street front turns and we get to the side of the building with winding staircases to the third floor. We will see characters going up and down those stairs with alarming frequency with questionable necessity to do so.

Another turn and we see a cross section of the apartment with Rosina’s tiny bedroom on the main floor, several rooms above that where the music lesson will take place in one and much more elsewhere that I cannot recall.

On the third floor there may be a kitchen, and I think I saw a servant washing dishes there but with so much activity going on it was difficult to keep up with who was doing what, where.

There is BARRACUDA SNACK …& BAR on the left which was in business, and we saw people eating there. There are apartments to the left and right of the Bartolo residence and they are occupied, of course, and now and then they become part of the main action of Rossini’s work.

That is not all. This is a whole community and Michieletto wants us to see it in full life and action with people running up and down stairs, making noise and showing a vibrant neighborhood. The costumes are a motley of the working class type and Rosina wears a short black dress and leotards that could have been bought at Walmart if Paris has such a store.

The neighborhood gets more vibrant when Don Basilio (Luca Pisaroni) sings the famous aria “La calumnia.” There is no need for him to do much except deliver it with sonority and conviction. In this production he uses the stairs and goes all over the place. But that is not enough. There are people on the street holding anti-Almaviva signs nicely printed. The aria is heard in the first act, and we do not know that Lindoro is in fact the count and why and how do the neighbors know what Don Basilio is singing about?

It is impossible to ruin The Barber of Seville if you have decent singers, a good chorus and a good orchestra. This production had all of that in spades. Diego Matheuz conducted the orchestra and chorus of the Paris National Opera with exemplary playing and singing even if I thought he took some parts a bit on the slow side.

I have no complaints about the singers. They were kept so busy doing other things that sometimes I doubted they had time to concentrate on their vocal duties.

In fairness I should mention that I saw the 55^th performance of this production which received a positive reception from the audience. Chacun a son gout, as the French would say.            

________________________________

The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini continues until July 13, 2025, at the Opera Bastille, Paris, France. http://www.operadeparis.fr/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

 

CARMEN – REVIEW OF 2025 ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, COVENT GARDEN PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Royal Opera House is rounding off its current season with a revival of Bizet’s Carmen, by all descriptions one of the favourites in the repertoire. Judging by the applause, the production must be counted as a success and vocally it was. Director Damiano Michieletto adds numerous personal touches that may attract some and be questioned by other fans.

Mezzo-soprano Anna Goryachova leads the cast in the title role and all eyes are peeled on her. She has a lovely voice, not big but fine. She is slender and attractive, but we want a Caremn who is more dramatic and demonstrative. She does not try to dance and that is fine but surely, she can move her arms, her body, and feet, give us some kinetic energy. We want to see a Carmen who is a sexual magnet. Ms Goryachova does not fulfil those attributes.

Tenor Charles Castronovo is an excellent Don Jose. He is a decent man who feels guilty about not visiting his mother and he develops genuine affection for Micaela (soprano Selene Zanetti), the country girl sent by his mother. Unfortunately, he lacks the strength to resist the sexual magnetism of the gypsy Carmen and ruins his life. Castronovo’s strong, resonant voice draws us to his side, but we give up on him personally as a Don Jose but not vocally as a singer.

Don Jose’s competition is the playboy bullfighter Escamillo (bass-baritone Christian Van Horn). With the unforgettable “Toreador” Escamillo expresses the ultimate in machismo, and Carmen falls for him. He expresses his manliness again when he drops by the thieves’ lair to see her again and invite her to the bullfight. Love triumphs, so to speak.

Micaela is sent by Don Jose’s mother to give him a kiss and ask him to visit his mother. She does affectingly and Don Jose does fall in love with her, and we should too. But Michieletto dresses her up like a frump and she wears glasses. Villages produce attractive girls, and some effort should have been made to make Micaela more appealing instead of working in the other direction. The costume designer is Carla Teti.

Anna Goryachova as Carmen. The Royal Opera ©2025 Marc Brenner

Michieletto adds another character whom we recognize as Don Jose’s mother. She appears a few times from the start as a silent character (is she a ghost, a figment of the imagination. Don Jose’s conscience?) When Don Jose abandons Micaela and runs after Carmen, the mother tosses a rose that she held in her hand at him. She appears at the end when her son strangles Carmen. Interesting?

He changes the occupation of Don Jose and his regiment into policemen instead of soldiers. They occupy a small building on a revolving stage, and it simplifies their uniforms to dull grey instead of officers’ attire. The children in the first scene do not march but they sing the march song. Policemen do not march but what is gained by changing the soldiers to cops?

The one-room police station stays on the stage throughout the performance including on the mountain where the thieves are waiting for victims to rob. We have a scene in a room that could be found in a small apartment, but we are supposed to be in the open-air freedom of the mountains. The set was designed by Paolo Fantin,

Even the final scene where Don Jose is begging Carman to run away with him, the two are supposed to be outside the bull-fighting arena. Instead, they are in a deserted area in the middle of nowhere.

This is a modern dress production that pays little attention to who wears what or where. We get street clothes of all kinds and colours. In a criminal den there should be some indication of where they are.

No one can complain about the performance of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Ariane Matiakh. It gave a superb performance as did the Royal Opera Chorus, William Spaulding, Chorus Director. Much of the applause may have been for them.

In short, a well sung production with Director Damiano Michieletto making numerous changes to the libretto that did not seem to add anything to the opera.
_____________
Carmen by Georges Bizet played until July 5, 2025, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, England. www.roh.org.uk

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

SAUL – REVIEW OF 2025 GLYNDEBOURNE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Composing and having an opera produced in the 18^th century was a complex business unless you stuck to Greek mythology. There are some fantastic stories in the Old Testament, but you could only write holy oratorios if you wanted your work produced. Things were improving at the time, but it was still risky. 

George Frideric Handel called Saul a dramatic oratorio, a stunning work based on the Book of Samuel about King Saul (Christopher Purves) and his son Jonathan. The latter had a close and dedicated friend, David. You may know very little about the first two, but you have met the statue of David many times and you know who he is: he killed the giant Philistine Goliath with his sling shot against all odds.

There is a story there but don’t call it an opera. Handel called it an Oratorio and added “or Sacred Drama.” That’s on the safe side of the law. He also called it “An Epinicion” a nice Greek word meaning “Song of Triumph” and further explained that it was about the victory over Goliath and the Philistines. Maybe you can produce this without the permission of the Bishop of London?

The Glyndebourne Festival has produced a magnificent and entertaining Saul. The opera has some stunning choral pieces and is visually fabulous and a pleasure to watch. It opens with an “epinicion” sung by the Chorus of Israelites praising the Lord and David who destroyed Goliath with a slingshot. We see a huge head of his victim on the stage which is rolled over and we witness the eye that David hit.

That is not the main story of Saul but the relationship between Saul’s son Jonathan and the low-born David is. Jonathan and David are friends who swear eternal fealty to each other, They are FRIENDS. Saul, with hair down to his buttocks, becomes jealous of the praise that David gets and decides that he hates him. Really hates him and orders Jonathan to snuff him. 

Scene from Saul at Glyndebourne Festiva. Photo: ASH

Saul has some gorgeous choruses, but we do not go to the opera to hear religious choruses. Director Barrie Koskie and his crew make sure of that with a large and splendid chorus lined up on the stage amid beautiful flower arrangements. They do more than sing. They move their hands and arms, make wild gestures and engage in physical acts that are entertaining. Saul pushes people to the floor and garners laughs. Saul is slightly deranged, and he is a comic figure who runs around the stage like a lunatic, and he is more of a clown than a king. That is how you change an oratorio into an opera or at least an entertainment.

Saul’s daughter Michal (soprano Soraya Mafi) falls in love with David, and she jumps up and down, giggling and the audience loves her. Her sister Merab (Sarah Brady) rejects David because he is not of royal blood, and she gets our contempt and no laughs.

The opera turns somber and serious in the second half leading to the glorious Dead March in the third act. It is a startling contrast that turns the oratorio into an opera as if that mattered.

Countertenor Iestyn Davies sings David with his gorgeous voice and stage presence. Tenor Linard Vrielink sings the part of Jonathan, David’s troubled friend who is ordered by his father to kill David. The plot and the biblical story of the succession to the throne and the establishment of the House of David are neatly solved: Jonathan and Saul are killed in war.

Unstinting praise must be meted out to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and The Glyndebourne Chorus conducted by Jonathan Cohen. They have, as I said, some stunning pieces to perform and sing and they perform gorgeously. There are splendid dance routines choreographed by Otto Pichler.

Saul by any name is a grand piece of theatre and Glyndbourne brings out its best.

_____________________

Saul  by George Frideric Handel will be performed on various dates until July 24, 2025, at the Glyndebourne Festival, East Sussex, England. www.glyndebourne.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press

THE FROGS – REVIEW OF 2025 PRODUCTION AT SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE, LONDON

Reviewed by James Karas

When was the last time you saw a comedy by Aristophanes? He is universally accepted as the great writer of comedy in Ancient Greece but there are few productions of his plays outside of Greece. His comedies are rooted in ancient Athens with references to events current in the fifth century BCE. Understanding them requires references to footnotes and the plays are almost invariably produced in a “version” that can be made comprehensible to a modern audience. 

The version of The Frogs, which is staged at the Southwark Playhouse in London has a long history and a sterling pedigree. It was adapted and staged by Burt Shevelove in 1974 in the swimming pool of Yale University with Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver and Christopher Durang. They were all students at Yale at the time.

Since then, it has received numerous changes including music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and was adapted “even more freely” by Nathan Lane. It has received numerous productions around the U.S., England, Canada and Australia most of them with short runs. It even made it to Lincoln Center where it ran for 90 performances.

Georgie Rankcom has staged a full-throated production in the tiny Southwark Playhouse in the Borough of Southwark. The skeleton of Aristophanes’ play remains but almost everything has changed from the “freely adapted” by Shevelove to the “even more freely adapted by Nathan Lane” and the songs by Sondheim have been changed as well. It’s done in the service of making the classic play funny and understandable to people who are not intimately aware of what was happening in Athens in 405 BCE, that is all of us.

Things are not going well in old Athens and Dionysus, the demigod of the theatre decides to go to Hades, the underworld, and bring a great playwright to fix things. This version is set in old Athens, but it takes place today and Dionysus has Shakespeare and Bernard Shaw as good candidates to revive the great city.

The cast of The Frogs. Photo: Pamela Raith

It sounds boring already, but it is not. Dan Buckley as Dionysus and Kevin McHale as his slave Xanthias are superb comic actors and have some very funny lines. Xanthis prefers to be considered an apprentice rather than a slave. His parents were poor and had to sell him into slavery. He recalls them bargaining with the purchaser and trying to get a better price by offering a mule to go with him. Dionysus wants to go to the underworld as a macho man, like Herakles and he goes to his half-brother Herakles (Jaquin Pedro Valdes) to get an outfit to pass as him. Fact: their daddy Zeus did their mothers and hence the relationship.

There is tomfoolery and modern references that are funny. On seeing Herakles’ beautiful house Xanthis mistakes it for Shaw’s and comments that My Fair Lady must have really paid off.

We meet the frogs and the lazy, good-for-nothing citizens of Athens who want everything to stay as it is. How about a dance routine by frogs? We get a Chorus, and they treat us to Sondheim’s songs which will keep us company throughout.

The travelers need to cross the river Styx with a hilarious Charon (Carl Patrick), the boatman. The Frogs appear and do their number, and we meet Ariadne (Alison Driver), Dionysus’ former wife. All along we are treated to energetic acting, dancing and singing.

In order to decide what poet will return to earth, they propose a contest between Shaw (Martha Pothen) and Shakespeare (Bart Lambert). In the end Shaw reads some lines from Saint Joan and Shakespeare recites lines from Cymbeline. They do not work very well because they are not in keeping with the spirit of the play. The second half fizzes out a bit and a line like “I will throw Ibsen in” when trying to convince Dionysus to take Shaw over Shakespeare is the best we get.

Director Georgie Rankcom creates energy and humour with a talented cast and a play version that we are grateful for.
_____________________
The Frogs by Aristophanes et. al. played until June 28, 2025, at the Southwark Playhouse, 77-85 Newington Causeway, London SE1 6BD. http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Press