There’s nothing more haunting than a pair of Victorian children singing a nursery rhyme and chanting “chase me, chase me”. Except, perhaps, a pair of opera-singing Victorian children with a cadaverously pale tenor dressed in black, creepily lurking behind them.
Craig Baldwin (Consent, John and The Flick for Outhouse Theatre Co) directs a cast of up-and-coming opera stars in this haunting in the form of Benjamin Britten’s classic chamber opera, The Turn of the Screw – the first of its kind to be presented at Sydney’s home of weird and wonderful musical stories, the Hayes Theatre. Based on the gothic novella of the same name by Henry James, Britten’s opera has six performers singing in English, accompanied by eerie strings and a celesta. Britten’s long-time librettist Myfanway Piper, writes the characters with humour and horror, an uncanny match for the dissonance of his compositions.
This production has a substantial sense of the dramatic potential in opera, with great moments of theatrical imagery and musical prowess.
Music director and pianist Francis Greep shrinks the full chamber orchestra down to a piano and a keyboard, placing them on the stage alongside the singers and other moving pieces. Emma Vine’s set design constantly shifts, with roaming platforms that click into place when maneuvered by children and ghosts, and various props that suggest someone or something lurking in the background. A model of Bly Manor (the grand yet isolated home where the story takes place) moves around the stage, pushed and manipulated by the actors.
An indistinguishable presence hangs in the air like a fog, hinting at something greater than the daily lives of the residents of Manor. Is it God? Is it the follies of their own minds? Or is it something more sinister that drives them into madness? Morgan Moroney’s lighting dances around these set pieces, the sickly yellow glow of vintage-style light bulbs pulling faces in and out of the darkness as the characters struggle with the many voices enveloping them from all sides.
As Flora and Miles, the children at the centre of this ghostly tale, Sandy Leung and Addy Robertson carry small, stiff, puppet avatars of their characters, emphasising the malleability of the sibling’s tiny forms (a strong symbolic choice from Baldwin). The pair’s voices work well together, and Robertson’s expressive face is difficult to look away from – particularly in Miles’s more tender moments, as he grapples with the idea that he is a “naughty” boy who cannot be redeemed.
Kanen Breen as Peter Quint – the manor’s former valet, who is something of a scoundrel – (alternately played by Benjamin Rasheed) is a veritable highlight of this production – his hands seem to take on a life of their own, with his spindly fingers mimic spiders scurrying along the decaying back walls, and his limbs move every which way as he lures the children away from their new Governess – not to mention his resonant and haunting voice. Catherine Bouchier as Miss Jessel – the children’s previous Governess, who mysteriously disappeared – (alternately played by Georgia Cooper) is cloaked in a never-ending wig of cascading blonde curls, and moves something like Kate Bush (another frequenter of wily, windy moors) as she similarly lures Flora away from the schoolroom and into the dark recesses of the fog.
Julie Lea Goodwin and Sophie Salvesani alternately play the children’s new Governess, alongside either Ruth Strutt or American soprano Margaret Trubiano as the housekeeper, Mrs Grose. On the night we attended the show, Goodwin and Trubiano sang alongside each other, which is a difficult task when working with only a piano and a keyboard – the latter standing in for the timpani, celesta, harp, and various horns and woodwinds.
Musically, this production feels a little top-heavy, with the usual floating harp motifs played by a tinkling, sonorous piano; and round, full percussive sounds replaced by an electronic imitation. Some of the depth of these instruments is necessary to balance out the vocals, but it is still such a treat to witness these singers fill the humble 110-seat theatre with their sonorous voices. Being so close to opera singers is a rarity, and it is a great reminder that singing in this style is such a skill.
Britten’s operas are always brimming with subtext, given his long-term “they were roommates”-esque partnership with Peter Pears. Baldwin draws out the homoerotic undertones in Peter Quint of this production, and doesn’t shy away from the inherent campness of horror (much like another recent showing on the Sydney stage, Kip Williams’ Dracula). [Editor’s note: Indeed, this twist on The Turn of the Screw does not quite reach the same depths of depravity and terror as the recent Netflix adaptation (Bly Manor) or the play staged by Tooth and Sinew with the Seymour Centre last year – which earned Jack Richardson a nomination in the inaugural Time Out Sydney Arts & Culture Awards.]
This production has a substantial sense of the dramatic potential in opera, with great moments of theatrical imagery and musical prowess. A very exciting first opera for the Hayes, The Turn of the Screw is a sign of great things to come.
It’s an opportunity for opera lovers to try something new in a very intimate setting, featuring emerging and established opera singers, some of whom you may have seen treading the boards at the Sydney Opera House. It’s also an opportunity to give the musical theatre lovers who usually frequent the Hayes a taste of something entirely different. Meanwhile, I’ll patiently await the day when somebody decides to put on a stripped-back version of Dmitri Shostakovich’s The Nose (the unlikely highlight of Opera Australia’s 2018 season).
The Turn of the Screw is playing at Hayes Theatre Co, Potts Point, until September 15, 2024. Find out more and purchase tickets over here.
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