My Melodrama
“Remember when plays had language? Dense, murky language, cerebrally and passionately expressed by idiosyncratically human characters? Following the remarkable double-header of Wallace Shawn's What We Did Before Our Moth Days and The Fever, I don't want plays to be anything but walls of text ever again. The two plays — Moth Days, a four-hander and The Fever a monologue performed by Shawn himself — both grapple with painful questions of human behavior. Moth Days is more focused on the pain we can inflict on one another, while The Fever eviscerates the capitalist system which governs the pain inflicted by and upon us. Both had almost no staging: just people, sitting in chairs, talking to us — really to us — about something true. ”
Catch while you still can
L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi is often called the first great opera, and for good reason. When he composed the score in 1607, Monteverdi deployed a massive orchestra for the first time, setting a blueprint that every composer from Mozart to Wagner would eventually follow. This production is directed by the celebrated South African artist William Kentridge, whose opera are distinct for their intricate combination of live and filmed elements, his own hand-drawn charcoal animations which are projected into the theatre, collages and multimedia layering.
Based on the ancient Greek myth, the story follows Orpheus, the son of Apollo, whose wedding day is cut short by the sudden death of his bride, Eurydice. Driven by a grief that refuses to accept the finality of the grave, Orpheus descends into the Underworld. Armed only with his lyre and the sheer beauty of his voice, he must charm the ferryman to cross the River Styx and persuade Pluto and Proserpina, the King and Queen of the Underworld, to release his beloved.
There is nothing quite like the Glyndebourne experience. Arriving in your black-tie best to picnic on the lawns during the interval, surrounded by the rolling hills of the South Downs… It’s the perfect summer evening and a magical escape.
Venue
Dates
From: June 14th, 2026
Until: July 25th, 2026
What our culture curators are saying
Not yet reviewed
RECENTLY REVIEWED
Krapp’s Last Tape / Godot’s To Do List
London
“Is existentialism having a moment? It certainly felt like it at the Royal Court for this thought-provoking double bill. Godot's To-Do List sent a chill through the audience as we recognized the inner voice—or perhaps even more frighteningly, an outer AI or social media one—endlessly controlling our lives but stopping us from doing what we really want to do. Both curtain raisers were two sides of the same coin, and this wonderful piece of contemporary writing was paired with Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. Directed and performed by Gary Oldman, this was the spectacle the pumped audience was here to devour. Enter Gary Oldman on the second night of his first live stage performance in London for 35 years. Firstly, he mastered his audience with significant aplomb, although he actually used a banana! Once he had us, he carefully led us through the process of Krapp's last tapes, meeting his younger self in the form of a voice recording which was laid down as a birthday ritual. Beckett's magnificent script and a very clever use of lighting did the rest, and the audience were spellbound throughout. Of course, Beckett is a matter of taste; it’s grown up, like a martini. My own preference is surgically cold and very dry, without even the tiniest (and perhaps irresistible) twist of sentimentality.”
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