Multi award-winning director Kristine Landon-Smith revives celebrated French playwright Jean Anouilh’s neglected classic The Orchestra.
A third-rate orchestra in a small French spa town play time worn musical arrangements to an
indifferent audience. In between the musical interludes, idle chit chat reveals the power struggles that lurk behind the ensemble’s shiny veneer. As the overture descends into an intoxicating symphony of piercing jealousy, bizarre gossip and thwarted emotions, the musicians reach an unexpected finale – but the music goes jauntily on…
Fizzing comedy and catastrophe collide in this story set just after the second world war exploring the corruption of human relationships and the jealousies aroused between a single male piano player amongst an all-female orchestra.
Kirstine Landon-Smith said: “Many many years ago I saw a production of The Orchestra at The Kings Head in Islington. I had never seen anything quite like it: a play set in France just after the war where the musicians between arrangements try to work out who had “collaborated”. Understated yet pricelessly funny, I knew I wanted to direct this classic gem. Ten years ago I did just that and fast forward another ten years and I am drawn again to this quick witted and poignant play in an excellent translation by Jeremy Sams.“
The Orchestra is at Omnibus Clapham 29th January to 17th February 2019. Book Tickets here.
