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Love is love: An Instinct - at The Old Red Lion Theatre

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What do you do when a pandemic breaks out and people start dying? In An Instinct, the answer is to escape to a remote cabin in the woods with your ex-boyfriend, leaving your current boyfriend behind. This is the premise behind Hugo Timbrell’s An Instinct, billed as a queer thriller that delivers a few shocks along the way. Yet, the real tension lies in the disturbing dynamics between the three characters—the mind games, gaslighting, and unhealthy dependencies. While the play is cleverly constructed, its underlying themes of domestic violence may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It's currently running at the Old Red Lion Theatre .  The play opens with Max (Conor Dumbrell) and Tom (Joe Walsham) arriving at Tom’s parents’ cabin in a remote part of England. A pandemic broke out, but not the kind where you have to pretend to practice social distancing or hand out government contracts to your mates for dodgy hospital gowns and face masks. This one is highly contagious and very deadly. But s...

Opera: Madama Butterfly



Madama Butterfly (appropriately subtitled "Japanese tragedy in three acts") is a little too dramatically obvious, and musically unsatisfying. But the performance by Kristine Opolais as Cio-Cio-San is the sort of dramatic and powerful performance that this piece needs and she had the audience cheering for her on Saturday night. It is all high melodrama and her transformation from a meek and feeble fifteen year old girl, to a woman rejected is incredible and really fleshes out this minimalist production.


The audience around me were not so rapt with the performance of James Valenti, as he is less of a big bold cad and more of a tender thoughtless B.F. Pinkerton, who marries Cio-Cio-San and assumes she understands the nature of the relationship. I did not mind this subtle choice, and listening to him on Radio 3 relay of the performance you would be none the wiser. And being a tall, strong-looking American, he certainly looked the part (as this brief story about him shows). The finale keeps him off stage and puts the audience firmly in the shoes of butterfly.

The opera is probably one of the better outdoor operas, particularly going by the tweets from the audience that watched Monday night's performance outdoors as part of the BP Summer Screens.




It has two more performances, not counting the 3D recording that takes place on Friday. The 3D recording is an opportunity to catch the opera at a bargain price (if you don't mind the cameras).

Next up for BP Summer Screens (and for me) is Cendrillon which opens on Tuesday night with Joyce DiDonato. I can't wait. Mild social networking games can be found on twitter at @mynameiscinders

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