Flight review: A good choice for the opening of the Susie Sainsbury Theatre

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)