EIF – Marriage of Figaro at the Festival Theatre

Consider opening your fridge and cupboards and deciding to include everything you find into a single dish.

Imagine the competing flavours. Do you think you’d find this a meal to savour? Kirill Serebrennikov forced the Komische Oper Berlin to take part in an artistic repast of this sort with his production of the Marriage of Figaro. I do believe that the kitchen sink was actually included.

The set for this was quite impressive being two levels representing the ‘upstairs-downstairs’ aspects of a lordly house. Action was often taking place simultaneously on both levels.

However, the overall effect was one of distraction. Where to look? What to concentrate on? It seems to me that the director mistook complexity for depth, the result being quite the opposite.

There were sculptures, ironing boards, lockers, tables, chairs, shopping trolleys, and ever so much more. At various times there were pseudo-drivel being shown in a sort of news ticker-tape, neon commentary, and random action superfluous to the story.

Great expense was wasted on the indulgence of this ‘artistic’ vision. The redeeming qualities of this UK premiere were a great deal of humour, satisfying singing and, of course, the music of Mozart.

https://www.eif.co.uk/events/the-marriage-of-figaro