Opera
Il Tabarro
Puccini’s stevedores are now workers in a meat factory, loading and unloading carcasses into an industrial van. Instead of an old woman with bags full of things found on the street, Frugola is a shoplifting lad. Giorgetta is shown helping out with the accounts in the office, and Tinca drinks can after can of Toohey’s New. Giorgetta remains in a stagnant, unfulfilling relationship. Her husband Michele finds himself engaged in work as a means of dealing with tragedies in his past. Alcohol is an important symbol in the work, it swaps from a fun pastime, to pathetic. Our workers are weary, bored and trapped - each of them faced with the question ‘how do I set myself free?’
Writer: Giacomo Puccini
Director: Constantine Costi
Set and Costume Design: Isabella Andronos
Conductor: Luke Spicer
Lighting Design: Nick Fry
Assistant director: Joseph Restubog
Giorgetta: Rebecca Claire Moret
Michele: Daniel Macey
Luigi: Geoffrey Knight
Frugola: Jermaine Chau
Tinca/ Song Seller: Blake Parham
Talpa: Alex Sefton
Oct 6 - 9 2016, Alfie's
”Given inside an industrial warehouse/garage that serves as a coffee shop during the day – this production is set in a meatworks (design by Isabella Andronos) instead of a barge tied up in the Seine. A big white transport van takes up most of the performing space. This van is craftily used during the paean to Paris (Bellville) duet that Luigi and Giorgetta sing; the soaring lines of Puccini are framed by the blazing headlights of the van, dazzling us and almost obliterating the singers.”
Gar Jones, 2016
