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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]
MARY CONWAY delights in a rarely performed comedy that recalls a Britain we remember in our bones
JEAN ROBERTS appreciates the way traditional panto can be remodelled into critique of the academy schools system
MARY CONWAY is riveted by a superbly crafted glimpse into the soul of a cast-off US star
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STEVE ANDREW recommends a lively and often moving guide to once vibrant spaces that have been abandoned or swept away
GEOFF BOTTOMS appreciates the local touch brought to a production of Dickens’s perennial classic
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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