Madame Butterfly at the King’s Head, Upper Street
A Thai ladyboy and an American airline pilot take the central roles in a pared-down, powerful modern adaption of Madame Butterfly. This is opera at its most raw and least excessive.
Carry On Follow That Butterfly
The transposition of Puccini’s opera from Japan at the turn of the last century to a modern-day Bangkok apartment works successfully, deftly allowing the injection of witty asides while simultaneously shining a more serious light on the sex industry and its power to destroy lives. The production threatens to slide into Carry On territory with ladyboy quips but in the end never loses touch with the clout of this simple, timeless story.
These are not Royal Opera House singers, but the standard is high across the board and performances abound with passion. The size of the theatre (50 odd seats) means that the climaxes really make an impact, often leaving hairs standing up on the back of the neck.
There’s a ladyboy on my lap
The production makes good use of the intimate nature of the setting, with the excellent chorus, made up of a gaggle of ladyboy prostitutes, making a sensual entrance, snaking among the crowd and draping themselves on unsuspecting audience members.
The trio on piano, clarinet and viola learnt the arias a more mournful and delicate note than orchestral versions and allowed the voices to provide the main thrust of the more high impact pieces.
Cringe-making puppet
The set is basic, but authentically gaudy, and could perhaps benefit from at least one change. The obviously low budget has a more serious impact when it comes to the entrance of the child, portrayed through a rather amateurish and clumsy puppet requiring three puppeteers. Perhaps inspired by recent stage triumphs using puppets, such as Warhorse, this attempt elicited laughter rather than tears at what is normally one of the most moving parts of the opera.
There are a few other glitches with the re-imagining. Being a ladyboy, Butterfly cannot – for obvious reasons – have the baby of Pinkerton, the airline pilot. This is explained away through Butterfly’s adoption of her dead sister’s child, but this seriously reduces the impact of Pinkerton’s guilt at having abandoned both mother and son.
These minor points aside, with the focus on the performances, the adaption is engaging and enjoyable. It provides a perfect introduction to opera, you won’t get more accessible than this. But it also has plenty to offer the aficionado, with a visceral power and intimacy that is sometimes lost in larger, plusher productions.
Madame Butterfly is just one of the five productions in the Opera Up Close rep season that runs throughout March at the theatre that now likes to call itself London’s little opera house.
Until end of March
Call 0207 478 0160 or visit http://www.kingsheadtheatre.org/
