by Giacomo Puccini
seen at the King's Head Theatre Islington on 6 May 2022
Mark Ravenhill directs an ingenious streamlined version of Puccini's La Bohème in the tiny theatre attached to the King's Head in Islington, with Philip Lee as Lucas (aka Mimi), Daniel Koek as Robin (the Rodolfo character), Matt Kellett as Marcus (the Marcello character) and Grace Nyandoro as Marissa (the Musette character). David Eaton and Philip Lee re-arranged the score for keyboard and reduced and modernised the libretto to provide a ninety-minute version of the opera with just four characters.
In a hospital A&E ward an almost catatonic young man is brought in and as the staff try to save his life the scene shifts to what may be his experience or may only be a fantasy; the hospital staff become Robin, Marco and Marissa, and Mimi meets Robin through a hook-up app. Initially hesitant, they fall for each other, determine to 'see where it goes', quarrel and make up, and then after a period apart Mimi comes back into Robin's life desperately ill. His friends take him to hospital .....
There are lighthearted touches in the libretto, reminding us that we are not in nineteenth century Paris (Marco's flat is conveniently near a Lidl store), but the story of aspirational yet frustrated young love transfers well to the new setting, and all the poignancy of Puccini's score is still manifested even when two men are singing the famous duets. In what is a tiny auditorium for opera the voices were strong and the keyboard accompaniment just right to produce an engaging new look at a very familiar piece.
