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Opera review: Carmen, King’s Head theatre, London
Bizet's classic gets an engaging contemporary updating
Fateful encounter: Jose (Roger Paterson) and Carmen (Ellie Edmonds) meet up
[Nick Rutter] 
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Carmen
King’s Head Theatre, London
BIZET’S Carmen – an opera which explores the tribulations of its eponymous heroine and the two men who vie for her affections – has been stripped down to its bare essentials in this contemporary retelling by Mary Franklin and Ashley Pearson.
In their version, we first meet Carmen (Ellie Edmonds), a low-paid hospital cleaner on a fag break and Jose (Roger Paterson), also toiling on a zero-hours contract. Swiftly becoming interested in each other, after an altercation with their employer they escape from a life of tedium and hit the road.
Then arrives Escamillio (Dan D’Souza), a strapping Arsenal player who falls for Carmen and sets the proverbial cat among the operatic pigeons.
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