Onegin and Tatiana, August 2018

Arcola Theatre - Grimeborn Festival/The Opera Company

An operatic adaptation devised and directed by Guido Martin-Brandis. It was presented at the Arcola Theatre in Dalston in Summer 2018, as part of their annual Grimeborn festival, and enjoyed a sell out run. Based on Tchaikovsky’s opera, with additional song repertoire by Rachmaninov, Strauss, Debussy and Mahler and spoken dialogue from the original Pushkin. I designed visual projections for the show, which explored the theme of psychological projection in the piece - the actors could project images and words onto screens and each other, allowing us to explore the inner worlds of these characters more deeply. The projections also facilitated creative exploration of displaying surtitles as an aid to telling the story. Costumes designed by Alexander McPherson. Production photos by Craig Fuller. Poster Design Guido Martin-Brandis.

Read my programme notes here.

Onegin: Nick Dwyer

Tatiana: Isolde Roxby

Narrator: Joan Plunkett

Piano: Richard Hall

Reviews:

Opera Now - Robert Thicknesse

“The Opera Company’s Onegin & Tatiana, devised by Guido Martin-Brandis, was a quietly powerful rhapsody on Tchaikovsky, boiled down to the central couple, supplemented with eclectic songs by Strauss, Debussy, Copland and more. It sounds random, but wasn’t: In fact, precisely what Grimeborn does well, a serious, original idea done to the highest standards. With two very strong performances by Isolde Roxby and Nick Dwyer, energetic and varied pianism by Richard Hall, and a contemplative narration by Joan Plunkett, this was strong on poetically nostalgic atmosphere, and confronted the emotional storms and sheer trickiness of love with imaginative magic.”

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Live theatre UK - Tim Hochstrasser

★★★★

"Rarely has the final confrontation been so searing for both sides – the point in the action where the accumulation of psychological commentary beforehand really came into its explanatory own."

"a subtle and shrewd exploration of one of the most intriguingly adult and mature opera plots that there is"

"an absorbing and very stimulating evening"

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Plays to See - Owen Davies

"an absorbing and effective introduction to one of the great romantic operas and the power of all four performances, enhanced by being delivered in such an intimate setting, is more than enough to make this another Grimeborn success."

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Nouse - Maddie Thornham

9/10

"a brilliant introduction to Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin"