THEATRE REVIEW: Passion - Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester

With the sad death of Stephen Sondheim in November last year aged 91, it was clear that many Sondheim productions would ultimately spring up all over the place. 'Passion', one of Sondheim's lesser known and more obscure pieces, is hardly ever performed. There was a 2010 West End revival, but if memory serves, it only ran for a couple of months. It is essentially a one-act high melodrama, but here it was presented with an interval.

Most musicals will end with the restorative power of love, the longivity and strength of love, the healing bond of love, the beauty of love. That is where this musical starts! Conceived by Sondheim, this show is a musical reworking and adaptation of the 1869 novel, 'Fosca', which itself was made into a film, 'Passione D'Amore' in 1981. This is a Muscial Tragedy. A Grand Opera of Musicals if you like.

Set in Italy in the first half of the 19th century, the story centres around a rather strange love triangle. Captain Giorgio Bachetti (Dean John-Wilson) is happily ensconced in the illicit love affair between him and a married woman named Clara (Kelly Price), when unexpectedly he receives orders that he has to transfer to a tiny provincial outpost far away from their Milan. Despite the distance, their love remains strong and they write to each other regularly, Bachetti evens contrives leave to visit her too. However, whilst in this new post he becomes bewitched by Fosca (Ruthie Henshall), the Colonel Ricci's (Tim Walton) cousin. Fosca is frail, and ill, it is feared she might soon die, what of, other than a broken heart and melancholia it isn't clear. However, she sets her sights on Bachetti and loves him with an intense passion unknown by him, or indeed anyone. She is possessive, maniuplative, conniving, selfish, desperate, and her love for him is all-consuming. However, this musical isn't as much about her love for him, as much as it is about how he - eventually - falls in love with her; and in so doing loses everything. 

With a flawless, fautless cast, they brought about a superb interpretation of this show. A hugely intimate and claustrophobic production, which needed, nay demanded, your full attention at all times; it was nuanced, clever, intense, and perfectly measured. Moments of bawdiness or barrack-room comedy supplied with ease by the ensemble of soldiers; caustic wit and stoicism were the order of the day for Fosca; whilst Doctor Tambourri (Ray Shell) brought gravitas and realism to the proceedings. The singing was excellent from all, and I loved the few harmonies - when they came they were glorious.

The set design was, for me, perhaps the weakest part of the show. A 1980s 'blurred around the edges' slightly out-of-focus wedding photograph came to mind when viewing the set. That, and ancient Japanese architecture. Three false prosc. arch quasi photograph frames had been created with man-powered sliding panels, showing an impressionist-style nondescript painting matching the rear wall, whilst billowing muslin sheets made up the walls and completed the set. It was the effective and creative lighting which truly made this minimalism work.

Directed by Michael Strassen, it was both sensitively and sensibly handled, and his development of characters, which was slow and deliberate, was masterful. My one concern was the opening scene. Depending upon where you sit in the theatre the entire opening scene is obscured from view. The two actors spend majority of it on the stage floor in front of the first row of audience and so I was unable to see this at all.

Sondheim's music is, well.... it's Sondheim! The motifs, the melody fragments, the lyric progression, the narrative drive, the rhyming, the witticisms, the juxtaposition between militray march and lyric love song, they are all there; and much of it plagerised from other Sondheim music...! It's incredibly difficult to sing, but just as rewarding for both singer and audience when it is sung right. This evening it was perfect! 

Let's face it; this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. 'Passion' is so rarely produced, and the standard of performance this evening was just so high, that if you don't see it now, you never will, and you'll regret it for ever!

Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 10.5.22