The Rake’s Progress review – a young cast packed with promise do Stravinsky’s dance with the devil proud

Battersea Arts Centre, London The staging is awkward and balance is an issue at points, but the singers of British Youth Opera are consistently impressive Clapham – home to hundreds of young Londoners crammed into sticky-floored house-shares of a weeknight and the sweaty dancefloors of Infernos at the weekend.

Where better to stage The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky and WH Auden’s 1951 fairytale-cum-morality-play about a country innocent swallowed whole by the temptations and corruptions of the capital? Add a cast and creative team in their 20s, and you’ve got immersive theatre before you even open the doors.

We’ve seen Rakes before from British Youth Opera (2009’s starred a certain Nicky Spence, star attraction of this year’s Last Night of the Proms – this finishing-school for students and young professionals clearly works) but never one conceived, directed, designed and stage-managed entirely by the participants themselves.

In terms of professional development it’s a gift, but it made for a bit of a bumpy show on opening night.

Continue reading...