Review: Alison Evans’s Dress Rehearsal: A Play with Opera @ the OSO Arts Centre

The OSO’s latest outing, Dress Rehearsal, A Play with Opera  forrays and shimmies into the politics, rivalries, and friendships of an operatic troupe – the Overtones.

Alison Evan’s second play to be put on at the OSO follows five performers over the course of one tumultuous and life-changing evening. Bella, the dominating diva of the group, clashes with the young Kit, played by a brilliant Luke Farrugia, as they vie for the attention of theatrical agent Zeno. Meanwhile, Steph, the quieter member of the troupe, remembers the life she might have had and the chances she has lost. Little does Steph know that between performances of Mozart, Rossini, and Verdi her past will catch up with her and life will never be the same again.

Evan’s script brilliantly reveals the inner thoughts and feelings of the backstage world and what is really beneath an onstage smile. The set, designed by Liz Marsden acted simply but effectively, as a mirror between the stage and dressing room world between which the cast could effortlessly manoeuvre.

The singing on the whole was controlled, if sometimes a little vibrato heavy, and each performer was permitted a moment to shine – Luke Farrugia’s Largo al Factorum was particularly entertaining while Chiara Vinci’s unaccompanied ‘She moved Through the Fair,’ was nothing short of spine tingling.

Watch this space to see where the troupe will go next!