Così Fan Tutte...

Last night Stuart and I went to see the ENO production of Mozart's Così Fan Tutte at the London Colesium.

Così Fan Tutte – ‘women are all, and always, so’ – is Mozart and Da Ponte’s final comic masterpiece. Phelim McDermott returns to direct this classic six-hander following the recent triumphs of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha and The Perfect American.

The production was colourful, playful and fun - albeit at times a little quirky.

Sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella are enjoying a holiday in Coney Island with their fiancés, Ferrando and Guglielmo. The two couples are enjoying the sights and sounds of the fun fair on the boardwalk, where the sideshow performers keep them entertained. However, the fairground is a place where anything can happen – and its manipulative master, Don Alfonso, has a game to play with the lovers.

The quirkiness reminded me a bit of Julie Walters's sketch in Victora Wood As Seen On TV when as the leader of the Piecrust players she says, "But I can't say this too often; it may be Hamlet but it's got to be Fun, Fun, Fun! I don't think it's too gimmicky... the tandem."

Well, instead of a tandem here we have waltzing teacups, Joe 90's spinning cage and line-dancing dwarves.

The Last of the Haussmans...

Last night Stu, Ollie, Toby and I went to see The Last of the Haussmans at the Lyttelton Theatre part of The Royal National Theatre on London's glitzy South Bank.

The Last of the Haussmans is a new play by Stephen Beresford starring Julie Walters as the anarchic, feisty but growing old, high society drop-out Judy Haussman who holds court in her dilapidated Art Deco house on the Devon coast. Rory Kinnear and Helen McCrory play her wayward offspring.

After an operation, Judy Haussman’s joined by said offspring Nick and Libby, sharp-eyed granddaughter Summer, local doctor Peter, and Daniel, a troubled teenager who makes use of the family’s crumbling swimming pool. Together they share a few sweltering months as they alternately cling to and flee this louche and chaotic world of all-day drinking, infatuations, long-held resentments, free love and failure.

The play examines the fate of the revolutionary generation and offers a funny, touching and at times savage portrait of a family full of longing that’s losing its grip.

The three main cast were excellent. The play is a little baggy though. Maybe it'll tighten up through the run.

"The only thing to be in life is a rebel."

"Let’s show this younger generation what it’s all about! Shall we get naked?"