Lambeth Fringe
An absurd and darkly comic account of three opera singers doomed to forever play old hags due to their age, which is redeemed by the power and quality of the music.Summary
Rating
Good
The stage is small and dark, a rack of clothes stored behind a table, a bucket with a mop in the middle of the floor. Various bits of make-up sit on a table in the middle of the room. A loo can be heard flushing nearby, repeatedly. An offstage voice half-heartedly reminds the performers of the time remaining until curtain up whilst being frequently interrupted by a male voice demanding attention.
Bridget Hardy walks in carrying several bags as well as the weight of the world on her shoulders. On the phone to what appears to be the mother of one of her music pupils, she is sarcastic and downtrodden. She goes to move the bucket, only to look up and realise it is placed in order to catch a leak. She sighs, shrugs her shoulders and proceeds to unpack her uneaten lunch and start to make up for a role. She is shortly joined by Penny Rossano. The two of them chat despondently about the frustrations of the mediocre production they’re in, the amateur management of the company, the needs of the lead roles to take centre stage, their inability to get any better work, and being forced to top up their meagre income with other jobs. They are two of the ladies of the Chorus getting ready for the opening night of a small-scale adaptation of Verdi’s Macbetto. The chat is amusing, if a little lame. They are women of a certain age, doomed to be overlooked for anything other than background roles. It is no coincidence that the roles they are slowly making themselves up for are hags.
And then Rossano sings and the audience takes a collective gasp. She’s good. I mean properly good: a professional opera and classical singer no less. The sort that holds you in the palm of her hand as she takes you on a journey. Hardy then follows: again exquisitely. I am always a little nervous of opera if I am honest. It’s easy for me to lose focus, and not quite understand it. But these two are transformative: moving, expressive, using the full range of their voices.
They are then joined by Samantha Houston: another Hag, although this time semi-made up with a green face. She is similarly frustrated like her colleagues: a life of playing old witches and crones lies ahead as they are deemed to be too old for anything else. Her introductory speech is sung skilfully.
I liked the absurd nature of this piece: the juxtaposition of every day frustrations played alongside the bursts of professional and emotive singing is made even more incongruous by the actors’ gradual transformation into old crones compete with wigs and hideous noses. The script could do with more work as it can fall into cliché but the deft references to the plot of the opera itself goes some way to compensate. The ending has all three singing one of their final numbers, to the audience, as one, once again redeeming the piece.
Written by: Bridget Hardy, Penny Rossano and Samantha Houston
Destination: Old Hag has completed its current run for Lambeth Fringe.
Read more about this show in our recent interview here.