Bristol Theatre Reviews

Review: Polly (The Heartbreak Opera) Wardrobe Theatre

New take on banned play is a rip-roaring feminist powerhouse of a show

It doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera or his follow up Polly, which was a bit banned back in the day. Polly (The Heartbreak Opera) from Marie Hamilton and Sharp Teeth Theatre, is a stand alone piece of work.

The adaptation brings Gay’s work bang up to date in trashy contemporary settings across two hours of brilliant fun. It retains the wit and satire of the original, including the wry take about sequels and follow ups. There’s also plenty of nods to Brecht for The Threepenny Opera and Mack the Knife.

Polly (THO) also acknowledges that current audiences raised on a diet of Netflix True Crime are not going to buy into some of his story lines, taking logical liberties with the flow of the narrative.

And when it comes to its own deliciously dark ending, it serves as a warning to the world. What is the point of staging the same theatre time and again if it only says the same thing and nothing changes? Continue to ignore and abuse women at your peril for we are coming.

Don’t be put off by the word ‘opera’. Composer Ben Osborn’s musically astute score is one of wit and fun which taps into modern pop music, making it more of a high-energy play with music.

Madeleine Shann as The Poet

A glass of ‘old wank’ accidentally strewn across the stage floor at the start, serves to enhance the metaphor of male toxicity. A foreshadowing of later Navy cannons fired by men at the same characters in the same space.

Marie Hamilton, Madeleine Shann, Genevieve Sabherwal and Sedona Rose make up the cast of four and they are absolutely banging. With the amount of multi-rolling, energy and the show’s cracking pace, you forget there are only four actors on stage until the end, making it feel like a cast twice its size.

Hamilton as Lucy Lockitt, Sabherwal as Polly Peachum and Rose as Jenny Diver are three distinctively flawed, well murderous in some cases, women. All are in love with highway man MacHeath. It’s Rom-Com turned anti-Rom-Com. Each woman’s own distinct farcical journey to become The One driven by love is turned on its head come the end.

Genevieve Sabherwal as Polly Peachum starts off as the crying version of Violet Elizabeth Bott. Tawdry yet naive, winning on the innocent charm side, she finds herself manipulated and abused on her quest to find her husband. When she finds him, does she really want him? It’s a fully fleshed out character despite the superficiality of the sparking tinsel backdrop and Home Bargains set dressing Boujee Chic.

Madeleine Shann is a joy as The Poet. Commenting and observing on the action, It’s a role that’s more like a narrative emcee, dripping with acerbic wit and Vaudeville make-up.

The Hip Hop pirates in Act Two are the perfect Drag Kings. They are led by Marie Hamilton as MacHeath, a Pirate King belying his posh Surrey roots. Appropriation of culture and land also comes in the form of Mayor Ducat. Sedona Rose gives a masterclass in clowning, exuding Boris Johnson buffoonery with toxic masculinity as the union flag pants tasteless British emigrant.

The use of drag kings and gender swaps in the narrative have been carefully handled with a clear distinction between the clowning aspect of performance and gender role swapping.

Polly (The Heartbreak Opera) is an absolute blast. An enormously cheering piece of theatre that’s a hilarious romp as well as a feminist powerhouse piece.

Polly (The Heartbreak Opera) will be at The Wardrobe Theatre until Monday 20 April 2024

For more information or to book: https://thewardrobetheatre.com/shows/polly-the-heartbreak-opera/

Cast and Creatives
Marie Hamilton – Captain Macheath/Lucy Lockitt/Mrs. Trapes/Mrs. Ducat
Madeleine Shann – The Poet
Genevieve Sabherwal – Polly Peachum
Sedona Rose – Jenny Diver/Mayor Ducat/Mrs. Peachum

Presented by Marie Hamilton and Sharp Teeth Theatre
Director Stephanie Kempson
Composer Ben Osborn
Score by Ben Osborn, Madeline Shann and Ellie Showering

Photos by Chelsea Cliff

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