Sherman Theatre, Cardiff
Mon 3-Wed 5 July
Some things never seem to change. When you think of groundbreaking theatre that deal with social issues, classics like Show Boat, Porgy And Bess, South Pacific and West Side Story come to mind. Now another masterpiece should too – Street Scene. It’s a perfect piece to attract people who may not normally like opera because it needs no translation.
Émigré Kurt Weill of The Threepenny Opera fame is the composer with poet/author Langston Hughes (lyrics). It’s based on the 1929 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama of the same name by Elmer Rice. The setting is a New York City Eastside tenement. Over the course of two swelteringly hot days, the plot that includes young love and marital infidelity, comes to a boiling point. The masterpiece won Weill the first Tony Award for Best Original Score after its Broadway premiere in 1947. He called this American opera, a hybrid of traditional European opera and American musical theatre. Weill scoured the city to come up with ideas.
“Seventy years on this piece is just as relevant as ever,” says director Martin Constantine. “It’s his response to the America of the 1940’s, observed with an outsider’s eye, and it’s particularly timely at the moment. The central argument revolves around those who dream ‘The American Dream’, and those who refer to the past; themes that resonate from the recent American election. The set is dominated by the house, which can be seen as a cage – either harbouring, or crushing the dreams of those who live within it.”
“It’s a fascinating piece because it is clearly exploring the form. But to question whether it really is an opera is to miss the point. Some of it certainly is operatic and elsewhere Weill more than tips his hat to Broadway. What matters is that it is vividly done,” explains Conductor Wyn Davies. “It has a blues number, a jazz number, there’s a song and dance sequence, as well as big scale romantic music. It’s hugely challenging for the performers as it’s stripped back to the bare words and emotions. There is nothing to hide behind.”
Tickets: £12-£20. Info: 029 2064 6900 / www.shermancymru.co.uk
words RHONDA LEE REALI