Director Martin Duncan and designer Francis O’Connor’s ingenious production uses its state of the art technology in this comedy that takes the common travelling experience of a delayed flight to fantastical heights.
A disparate group gathered in an airport departure lounge include a couple hoping to revive their moribund marriage, an older woman waiting for a barman she met in Majorca, a diplomat bound for Minsk with his pregnant wife and a perky steward and stewardess who hand out steamed flannels before nipping off for hot sex.
Above, to a video projection of planes landing, Ilona Revolskaya’s Air Traffic Controller comments in stratospheric soprano on weather conditions.
The characters are brought together by the plight of a refugee, trapped in the airport without papers and hiding from the immigration officer, (bass-baritone Michael Mofidian emerging from the lift like Mephistopheles in a cloud of smoke).
Countertenor Patrick Terry’s aria as to why he is trapped cuts to the heart and the entire cast is of a high singing and acting standard.
Marylebone London NW1 (Run ended)