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Hell isn't such a bad place
with this cast
Orpheus In The
Underworld
King's Theatre, Edinburgh 
GOING to hell might not be so
bad if the cast of Orpheus were there waiting. The songs they sing and stories
they tell would make the underworld a much more entertaining place if last night
at the King's was anything to go by.
The story of Orpheus is simple, if
morally suspect: Orpheus and Eurydice are unhappily married, each having affairs
with lovers. Eurydice's lover, however, is really Pluto, the god of Hades in
disguise, who tricks her, causing her death and allowing her into his realm.
Orpheus
rejoices at the news, but is forced by Calliope, his mother, to attempt a
rescue. Composer Jacques Offenbach adds a sub-plot, where the gods of Olympus
demand a "holiday" which eventually involves a visit to hell.
Amateur by name but not by performance, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society
of Edinburgh took a great many liberties with the work of Offenbach. But it was
all to the good.
With the plot resembling so many soap opera stories, it made sense that
this comic opera should at least reflect its contemporary counterparts. So when
Elizabeth Hutchings stepped onstage as Calliope, looking and behaving like Anne
Robinson, it didn't seem remotely wrong. Graham
Addison's Pluto had the swagger
of JR Ewing and Fiona
Main's man-eating Eurydice was a flirty, trampy soap
staple.
The hysterical, outstanding performances of these actors,
together with Deborah
Wake's tremendous pantomime Cupid and Maxwell
Smart's
inspired alcoholic Styx easily made up for the very occasional lump of ham
acting or off-key singing, adding up to night of fabulous entertainment.
Continues alternate performances with Iolanthe until Saturday
MARTIN LENON
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