'Orpheus' - Play review

Little Bulb's 'Orpheus' is continuing its tour at the Liverpool Everyman from 20-24th and Birmingham Repertory Theatre from the 28-31th of October. If you can catch it there then I highly recommend you do and you can find links to tickets on the Little Bulb website here.

Little Bulb Theatre's production of 'Orpheus' is a reimagining of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Persephone in the style of the European cabaret of the 20s and set to an eclectic soundtrack of club jazz, mock-opera and the music of Django Reinhart. If that sounds like a mad mix that's because it absolutely is, and it's a bloody spectacle to behold.

From Little Bulb Theatre's website

The production is a co-production between Little Bulb and the Battersea Arts Centre and following the tragedy in March it's wonderful to see work of such colour and optimism still emerging from there. Every moment of the play burns with such vivacity which keeps the mostly wordless plot and the cabaret-inspired frame narrative so enthralling that as an audience you barely notice any time pass. It was a tenet of Nietzsche that Greek tragedy should be a living consolation in its ability remove the audience entirely from reality, and that is entirely the world created here. The story itself has practically no words besides Persephone's song and the narration of the host - and Eugenie Pastor's Yvette Pépin is so emphatic and passionate that one can't help but be totally involved in the tragedy, as she herself is so hyperbolically affected by the story she is telling one can't help being dragged into that world of heightened emotions and tragic fates.


It's really a play of extremes, there isn't much subtlety or middle-ground - and certainly no mediocrity. Little Bulb's vibrant and eclectic imagination really takes centre stage in this play, and certainly in the first half it's hilarious. It's utterly joyous in the inventions it produces to represent the different part of the story, if I have to use the word 'eclectic' 3 times in one essay I guess I'll have to, that's just the buzzword of the show. The second still has a sense of humour but isn't as rib-ticklingly ludicrous as it moves into the emotional end-game of Orpheus' tribulation in the underworld. And this works so much to the play's benefit; as is demonstrated perfectly in The Globe's current production of 'Richard II' the inclusion of a bit of silliness makes the tragic ending even more tragic by comparison, sort of the inverse of 'Henry IV's 'herein shall I imitate the sun' speech. One certainly wouldn't get up at the interval thinking that the rest of the play would be an emotional reckoning, but as my friend Rob whispered to me during Orpheus' walk out of the underworld: "that's some Doctor Who shit". The ending and epilogue are truly shocking and heart-breaking in the power of simple images and I very nearly had a tear in my eye at Orpheus' choice, and it produced a very audible gasp from the audience.

The cast were evidently committed so whole-heartedly to the work they were creating. They never could've sustained the frame narrative otherwise, as the actors fully inhabited both their cabaret-characters and their cabaret-characters-playing-Orpheus-characters-characters, an effect which created a few funny moments when characters realised how ridiculous what they were doing was. In particular the characters of Pépin/Eurydice and Reinhardt/Orpheus stood out for how they utterly lived their characters, making their presence feel natural and wholly believable for how heightened and stylised it was. The five chorus were then very effective in the traditional sense of the Greek chorus, even 'unwittingly' as the chorus of the cabaret witnessing the tragedy unfold. Again I'm forced to mention Eugenie Pastor's Yvette Pépin because she was just so fantastic in her role as leader of the cabaret expertly leading the audience and managing the mood in the space as a wholly relatable compere. I really do hope her joke about the music and atmosphere going to 'set the roof on fire' was a light-hearted reference to the fire at the BAC earlier in the year, though I didn't pick up on it till after the show.

The soundtrack is really a major highlight of the show, the talented musical cast easily ranging all the moods and emotions needed for the telling of the story and its frame narrative. At times it bursts with the energy and vivacity that carries the play forward like an express train or to have the audience clapping hands and tapping feet along. However, some of the more subdued moments were also very effective, the soft romantic songs sung by Yvette Pépin for the love of Orpheus and Eurydice, while the music for Orpheus' decision and in particular Persephone's solo ('La Chanson de Perséphone' on the soundtrack album) were utterly heart wrenching. Again, this is mostly down to contrast and such moods being unexpected, with so much of the action and music in the play being an (eminently enjoyable) jaunt, these somewhat out-of-the-blue deviations are oh so refreshing in their melancholy*, and I would encourage everyone not to laugh when it comes to Persephone's song and just wallow in it. The chorus were especially effective in these slightly more subdued songs of the second half, with beautiful harmonies that had me quite taken aback, and Reinhardtesque guitar-playing was a brilliant, and at times hilarious, analogue for Orpheus' ability, particularly when subduing Cerberus with the lullaby. The play in its entirety is however triumphant in the scale of participation from the cast musicians, and the 'choral' musical sections where everyone plays his or her set instrument in a large band for foot-stomping audience participation.

Ultimately, Little Bulb's 'Orpheus' was a hugely successful production in encompassing all dimension of human emotion and experience through the lens of silliness and play, and hugely entertaining. I only hope the play gets revived soon or comes back to Southampton, as it is something I really feel I need to see again. It's just a truly great play and something everyone with the means to needs to experience - 9/10

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*he says, replaying 'La Chanson de Perséphone' for the 10th time.