A review by Carmen Nasr for EXTRA! EXTRA!

London’s latest offering of the steadily burgeoning movement of opera served up in shoebox dimensions is dished out by the emerging Merry Opera Company, who wish to pull opera down from the lofty rafters of high culture into the more accessible arena of fringe theatre. Opera purists beware, this is a thigh-slapping vaudevillian slice of opera’s frivolous little sister – the coquettish operetta. Those looking for a good old knees-up however, can rest assured that Offenbach’s giddy wit and frisky cultural satire are captured in all their popular glory by the dynamism of a sparkling cast and a punchy new translation by director Kit Hesketh-Harvey.

Supposedly described by Nietzsche as a clown who created not operettas but ‘buffooneries’, it is easy to say that Offenbach does not sit comfortably in the realms of the theatrical high-brow, and Hesketh-Harvey appears to embrace this with vigour. The very title is transformed from the rather straightforward La Belle Hélène, to the tongue-in-cheek, more satirical Troy Boy. In the same vein, the action descends from the towering eaves of ancient Greece to the stagnant suburbia of the British Isles.

Married to Blackberry wielding Menelaus, Helen is fed up with the dreariness of her marriage. At the local suburban Greek restaurant, a pretty-young thing of a waiter catches her eye and sends her into a fantasy that plays out on the distant shores of ancient Greece. She becomes Helen of Sparta, the most beautiful of all women who is lured into temptation when a mysterious and handsome shepherd stumbles into her world. Flanked by a limping Achilles, a pretty boy Paris and an assortment of blundering kings and gods, this most famous of love stories comes to a close among the glittering disco lights of top party destination, Faliraki.

Rosalind Coad leads a very capable cast as the teasing and frothy Helen. She has a playfully enticing stage presence that draws in the audience with a delicacy that is also permeates her singing. Christopher Diffey’s Paris provides a consistent and solid vocal performance, and brings a balanced subtlety to a role that could easily be overplayed. In a much smaller role, Marcin Gesla is absolutely charming as the naïve yet endearing Agamemnon, while also delivering some fine vocals. The rest of the cast are a real tour de force, whose energy is truly infectious, however at times an excessive amount of frenzied movement tended to overpower the music, with some performers possibly unable to sing to their best ability when jumping all over the place.

Stephen Hose directs a scaled down quintet who, disguised as what looks like a Greek wedding band, deliver Offenbach’s confection of an operetta with the right dose of stripped back elegance for such a small space. James Perkins’ set design marries together the faux marble and white plaster pillars that adorn your average Greek restaurant, with a flexibility that allows the actors to almost constantly rework the set with a stylistic ease.

Troy Boy is certain to entertain with its dynamism and Savoy-style humour, dishing up a well-crafted and light hearted night out. Whether it brings opera to the masses is another question. Merry Opera’s aspiration of making opera more accessible, a philosophy it shares with other ‘mini’ opera companies such as OperaUpclose and Charles Court Opera, seems to manifest itself in the tradition of light opera, musical theatre and the ever popular Gilbert and Sullivan. Arguably this is a cultural genre that is defined by its accessible popular appeal, and while Merry Opera do a fantastic job in bringing this to the fringe, I am still waiting for a company with the innovation and daring to bring the operas of high culture themselves to the people.