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Orpheus in the Underworld

Published Wednesday 1 July 2009 at 11:35 by George Hall

Offenbach’s classic operetta joins the Holland Park repertory in its compact 1858 version, wittily translated by Jeremy Sams.

The style of such pieces is hard to hit smack in the middle, depending as it does on a mixture of subversion, satire, precision and chic, all wrapped up with more than a hint of pure hedonism. It says much for the energy and focus of Tom Hawkes’ staging that once past a slow opening scene, it picks up momentum and maintains its pace. Oddly, the main barrier is the notion that we’re in a film studio, and that the show is being directed by an Erich von Stroheim figure. Greek mythology is enough to be getting on with.

But at least the Hollywood frame gives designer Peter Rice plenty of ammunition for his sets and costumes, which are a riot of invention and good fun. So are many of the individual performances, although a general fault is a lack of kick in the dialogue, which needs punching harder over the footlights. But Jeni Bern’s nimble Eurydice, Benjamin Segal’s raffish Orpheus, Ian Caddy’s scurrilous Jupiter (wonderfully seconded by Jill Pert’s expert Juno) and Daniel Broad’s Aristaeus turning into Pluto all give good value. Nuala Willis’s grandly overbearing Public Opinion is also spot-on.

Jenny Weston’s choreography has plenty of pep and the evening’s feel-good factor is high. So are musical values, with John Owen Edwards’s conducting both graceful and exhilarating.

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