This production is not so much a play as an essay in non binary advancement over five hundred years, some visually impressive, some laboured like the interminable vignettes that end the play.
Chen’s incredible talent, expressive delight for his craft and connection with the audience made for a night of pure musical joy.
Life is a Dream becomes a nightmare of revelation, of errant parenting, prodigious entitlement and the denial that the fault is not in ourselves but in our stars.
Haydn is one of those composers who everyone admires but is rarely on people’s desert island list.
A production of charm, energy, empathy and passion, a testament that hope can spring from horror, and the human capacity for humour as a fundamental source for healing.
The thrills in this production are made to rib tickle rather than spine chill and the vertiginous shifts of plot and scene are employed to great comic effect.