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Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

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If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging

Fragmented blood and lust: Written on Skin fires

Written on Skin © 2012 ROH/Stephen CummiskeyThere was style, passion and violence going around in spades at the Royal Opera's premiere of George Benjamin's new work, Written on Skin,  Friday evening.

Directed by Katie Mitchell, it is a big lavish production where angels look down on the unfolding story based upon the old fable Le Coeur Mangé (The Eaten Heart). It is a story about a powerful protector who engages an artist to create a work to celebrate his life and in doing so awakens his submissive wife. Upon discovery of this infidelity he plots his revenge.

It is a short piece of only ninety minutes with no interval, but it is perfectly formed. For an opera about despair and unlocking beauty the music is evocatively layered. There are no big arias and much wailing at times but bit by bit the music serves to build the drama and tension of the piece. By the time of the conclusion and act of revenge the production has taken you to another world of beauty and wonder.


The performances by three leads Christopher Purves as the Protector, Barbara Hannigan as his wife and Bejun Mehta as the boy are stunning and powerful. Both Purves and Hannigan had the roles written for them and it is clear this gives it a dramatic edge.

If anything Martin Crimp's libretto, which tells the story in the third person, can feel like a distraction. Instead of  being emotionally connected to the piece you find yourself left cold as it switches from the story to the present to describing the obvious. Alienation may be the intent but why hold back when everything else is so lavish and dramatic?

This opera orgasm had its world premiere at Aix En Provence in 2012 and will have a short season at the Royal Opera with four more performances... Good seats still look available for all performances...

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