LONDON, ONT. -- Opera Comique provides a funny finish to the 27th seaoson of the London Community Players.
The farce by Nagle Jackson -- which launched its stay at the Palace Theatre last night -- takes its name from the Paris theatre where Georges Bizet's classic opera Carmen premiered on March 3, 1875.
Directed by Lesleigh Turner and Brian March, this comedy of manic manners is played out in a corridor of the opera house, outside three private boxes.
Odile is the narrator of the plot and Catherine Magee's portrayal of this sassy character is one of the show's better elements.
Odile's also the usher who must keep track of the theatre patrons, their criss-crossing storylines, mistaken identity scenarios and risque fun that are all staples of a frothy French farce.
For Monsieur (Edward J. Hepburn) and Madame de la Corniche (Virginia Kelly), the opera outing is an opportunity to promote a romance and marriage between their allegedly virtuous daughter Viviane (Selena Broughton) and eligible-if-sex-crazed bachelor Hector Vigneron (Paul Tellier).
Comic complications are inevitable since Hector's father, Monsieur Vigneron (Larry McCullough), is Madame de la Corniche's secret lover and about to become involved with the vivacious Viviane.
Another wild card in this zany stage game is the aptly named La Tartine (Lori Fellner). She plans to become a celebrated opera star and is more than willing to "please" the composer Gounod (John Palmer) to realize her impossible dream. In the middle of all the naughty nonsense is Bizet (John Douglas) who nervously awaits the public's response to his beloved opera.
Douglas portrays the great composer with broad humour and a delicate touch of melancholy. Reacting to the audience's lukewarm response to Carmen, Bizet issues a heartfelt rant against the unfair forces facing a true artist.
It ends with the the script's most memorable line: "Exit, pursued by despair!"
In fact, the composer was chagrined by the controversial reception given to his work and some biographers have claimed that Carmen's failure precipitated Bizet's death on June 3, 1875, during the opera's premiere run.
But such sobering reality is secondary to Opera Comique the sole objective of which is accentuating the adjective in its title. And that mission is accomplished by this high-spirited show.
(More: Theatre Reviews).
More Theatre Reviews
