Reviews
Artists: Hadestown - A folk opera
Venue: Union Chapel
Town: London
Date: 25th January
Website:
http://www.anaismitchell.com/home.html
It seemed like I had been waiting forever for Hadestown but it was in fact only three years. My second review for Fatea was Anais Mitchell at the Luminaire and I still have vivid memories of her playing 'Our Lady of the Underground' and wrote:
"Used to her folky voice, I was completely unprepared for the bluesy, blowsy, bar room bluster (complete with request for a whisky - "just to get in character") she gave this track".
Then came notice of the album, then rumours of show coming to the UK, then confirmation of the show coming to the UK and yet, after all this expectation (or probably because of all this expectation) I left The Union Chapel feeling not completely fulfilled.
The shows opening act was Wallis Bird who was as perfect here as she was later as one of the three Fates. She gives her guitar a fearful tap on her rockier tracks but is just as adept with ballads and with his combination Bird reminds me of Melissa Etheridge.
The musicians were led on stage by musical director Michael Chorney right on nine o'clock and were followed by the evening's narrator Jackie Leven. Leven first gave an overview of the Ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice on which Hadestown is based (Orpheus travels to the underworld to save his wife Eurydice, softens up Hades and Persephone (Hades' wife) with his music, is given a chance to walk back to earth with his wife as long as she walks behind him and he does not look back to check she is there but (and considering this is an ancient myth I don't think a spoiler alert need to be issued here) he blows it.
Mitchell's adaptation is then described and the cast introduced.
Mitchell plays Eurydice and Jim Moray plays Orpheus, Persephone is played by Thea Gilmore and starring as the other major character, Hades, is Martin Carthy. Moray was undoubtedly the star of the show, I had no trouble believing that he could charm birds, fish and wild beasts and would not have been surprised if the trees in Compton Terrace started dancing. Gilmore was equally persuasive as the owner of a speakeasy who spends six months inside the walls of Hadestown and six months out. Mitchell herself is understandably wonderful and much as I did not want to believe that she would give up her husband for a life of security inside the walls I did. Try as I might, I could not get Martin Carthy as the dark lord of the underworld, the great seducer of Eurydice and even when he stood in the pulpit of the Union Chapel to deliver 'Why We Build The Wall' he was just that; Martin Carthy in the Union Chapel.
The songs, the musical score, the voices were all outstanding; at the end of the year when top ten lists are drawn up this will be on it but I was expecting more theatre and more drama. With no stage dressing, no costumes (Jim Causley as Hermes was the worlds best dressed hobo) nothing other than standard lighting I got no feeling that I was either part of or looking into a post apocalyptic dictatorship and with the majority of the cast reading the lyrics it looked (even though it did not sound) more of a rehearsal than a show.
The Jacket