★★☆☆☆
Considering the bloodshed, knives and screeching graffiti featured in director Gerard Jones’s previous visit to Wilton’s Music Hall (it was a production of Handel’s Oreste), we get off extraordinarily lightly here. No props except a chair; no setting except whatever the mind conjures from changing spotlights or the black steps leading to the small orchestra, housed at the stage rear. Clothing could be characterised as “modern-day louche”, and a little knifing does go on — but nothing compared to the gory Oreste.
In principle, restraint should be perfect for La Tragédie de Carmen, Peter Brook’s miniaturised, bare-boned version of Bizet’s opera, with a reduced character list and a narrative tilted more towards the original Prosper Mérimée novel. It should also help