7 May 2025
“You see how I am. What I do is . . . I find a person. I enchant the person. Throw a spell. Pull the person in closer, closer. Until they’re in love with me. Don’t fall in love with me. I think often I’m in love with them back. Then one day suddenly I despise them. Their weakness in being so easily enchanted. I try to push them away. Only they won’t be pushed away. They’re too deep in. Under the spell. So what I have to do is I have to draw on my cruelty. Have to hurt them so badly. I have to break them. It’s the only way to push them back from where they came. Do you see?”
London really is awash with quality drama at the moment. But take a break from the star-laden West End asking mega ££££ for tickets and I strongly recommend a visit to Richmond’s tiny Orange Tree Theatre. Under visionary Artistic Director Tom Littler, late of Jermyn Street Theatre, this is a venue that punches well above its weight; it’s a veritable powerhouse of quality writing and performance. And it’s on a roll right now.
The current show is a canny transfer from its premiere in 2024 at the RSC’s Swan Theatre in Stratford, a thrilling biographical play by Mark Ravenhill, who never ceases to amaze me with his work. Here he manages to combine his love of opera with queer history , the birth of public arts funding and also provides a subtle, waspish view of the social history of Britain as the nation stood on the cusp of the post-war new Elizabethan era.
Set in 1953, it explores collaboration and conflict between two incredible composers, Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst after they were paired together to censure he completes an epic work, Gloriana, a full scale opera to celebrate the Coronation of the young Queen Elizabeth II. The problem is one of time: Gloriana has a ridiculous deadline of only nine months before its Royal premiere at Covent Garden. Britten was a genius music talent but a cocksure, arrogant young man, riding high on his success with Peter Grimes, which had premiered in 1945, just as the war was ending, and single-handedly revived English-language opera. Has he bitten off more than he can chew this time?
Britten (Samuel Barnett) doesn’t actually want any help. Ms Holst (Victoria Yeates), the daughter of composer Gustav Holst (The Planets) had formidable musical talent of her own- she studied composition and conducting at The Royal College of Music… yet she just wants to share his orbit and be billed as his assistant. This play examines the cut and thrust of their relationship as they worked and sparred daily in the beautiful house Britten shares with his gay partner, the celebrated tenor Peter Pears, in Adleburgh on the Suffolk coast.
I knew nothing of Ms Holst prior to seeing this fascinating drama, which Mr Ravenhill, adapted and expanded from his 2013 BBC radio drama, Imo and Ben. This made me want to seek her and her work out. A fascinating woman. Ben and Imo with two pitch perfect performances was a masterclass – simply Glorious! A delicious evening that fed the mind and soul. Run to see it.
