Beth wants to watch Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Mo wants to watch The Marriage of Figaro. A balance is struck and from it The Marriage of Kim K happens; a mashup of opera and reality TV which ends up showing how similar the narrative situations are.
The actual production itself is a feat that deserves great credit, mixing as it does live music, acoustic and electronic, a multi-platformed stage consisting of four separate sets which, along with the backdrop, is all taken apart during the performance, live video streaming of action on and off stage, and a finale that finds the cast dispersed around the whole auditorium. Technically this was very impressive and despite a couple of camera issues and some hesitant transitions it was pulled off to an exceptional standard.
Of course half the production relies on the quality of the music, primarily composed by Clem Faux with a number of other composers to credit. The arrangements of Mozart’s music were accomplished and imaginative. It was a shame that the overture was recorded and not played live, the transition from the sheeny recorded sound to the small live band somewhat jarring. Their placement to the upper right of the audience did cause some balance issues but overall there were no noticeable miscommunications between band and cast. The modernisation of the score, for instance diverging in the case of Kim (Gabriella Noble) and Kris (James Quilligan) with drumkits, synth and a heavy beat worked well, especially when comparing the TV personalities to Mozart’s own Count (Jono Hobbs) and Countess (Ell Potter), who still had the original Mozart accompaniment. However, there were some inconsistencies. The first half neatly merged different styles, but the second didn’t quite reach the same mark, resulting in a finale was essentially straight Mozart. Figaro’s (Jack Trzcinski) poppy style was refreshing and a very commendable adaptation of well known melodies, and similarly Beth’s (Amelia Gabriel) solo arias allowed for greater character development, her soundworld easily distinguishable from those of the Kardashians and Mozart. Mo (John Paul), on the other hand, didn’t have this opportunity to develop as his song, a reworking of ‘La Vendetta’, sounded hesitant and confused, the music unable to do justice to librettist Leo Mercer’s charming and, ultimately, fun lyrics. In fact, the libretto was probably the most impressive achievement of the whole show – warm and witty, and seamlessly (almost virtuosically) matching the original melodies.
The cast were very strong. Noble and Quilligan in particular maintained a lightness and focused character throughout despite their challenging repertoire. Similarly, Hobbs stood out, his grand-opera pomposity and exaggerated expressions balancing the Kardashians’ contemporary valley-girl flusterdness and Beth and Mo’s more straight realism. However, despite Trzcinski’s very commendable performance as Figaro the character itself was confusing. The sudden sincerity and blunt message-delivery was brought in too late in the performance to feel natural after a first half that took itself refreshingly unseriously. The material was all of a high standard, but the complete tonal modulation and overcrowding of themes (Advertising? Entertainment? Twitter? High-versus-low culture? Commercialism? Capitalism? Love? The internet? Marriage?) left the show feeling disjointed. The song ‘Superficial’ was a particular example of this – after so much satire and fun it was hard to know whether Figaro was a sincere figure or, like the others, an ironic and shallow person, hollowed-out by image-driven, contemporary, online culture (lyric: ‘you’re so avant-garde you know sincerity’s in fashion’).
That being said, it was not enough to damage the performance irrevocably. The Marriage of Kim K is a remarkably imaginative and lovingly constructed piece of theatre. Despite the reservations, it is hard to escape the feeling that something genuinely new has been created here – and that, above all else, is worth serious commendation.
