DRESS REHEARSAL Comes to OSO Arts Centre, 9-20 Feb

What really goes on backstage, when the public face is replaced by the private one? DRESS REHEARSAL follows five performers over one evening as they endeavour to bring opera to a London pub. Onstage and backstage, the arias and ballads parallel the hopes, fears and disappointments of the individual singers.

The show runs Tuesday 9th - Saturday 20th February, with press night on Thursday 11th February 2016, at OSO Arts Centre, 29 Station Road, London SW13 0LF.

Alternating between the bar and the intimate setting of the dressing room, the play explores the failures, ambitions and rivalries of the performers over a night when tensions between them come to a head. The group may be dominated by failed Diva, Bella, but the story ultimately belongs to reticent Steph as her past comes back to haunt her and a secret is revealed which means nothing will ever be the same again.

Director Paola Cuffolo comments, What the script does brilliantly is show how people interact with one another when they must work together towards a shared goal but from totally different idealistic standpoints. It also highlights how opera can represent all of these people and walks of life, bringing its relevance to the fore in an age where it is often side-lined. Having been heavily in opera throughout my own career, the opportunity to connect it to people's lives in a way that makes it real and alive is very exciting.

Using opera and traditional music to express the emotions at the heart of the play, DRESS REHEARSAL looks at the pain of coming to terms with failed ambitions and lost opportunities - yet at the same time it is a tale of hope, camaraderie, forgiveness and love.

Writer A.J. Evans comments, DRESS REHEARSAL was inspired by a group of middle-aged performers I saw singing in a London pub. I couldn't help wondering what their hopes and dreams had been. On stage they showed a united front- but perhaps there were all kinds of jealousies and insecurities simmering under the surface? As a story began to form, I saw that I could alternate the onstage scenes with those of the backstage, and have the opera arias feed into what was happening with the various group members. I don't think anything quite like this has been done before - a kind of 'jukebox musical', only with opera!

DRESS REHEARSAL is full of musical greats including excerpts from La Traviata, Carmen, The Magic Flute and The Mikado.

IF YOU GO:

DRESS REHEARSAL

Tuesday 9th - Saturday 20th February 2016
Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm | Saturday matinees, 3pm

90 minutes, plus interval

OSO Arts Centre, 29 Station Road, London SW13 0LF,

www.osoarts.org.uk

OSO Arts Centre is located in Barnes. The nearest stations are Barnes Bridge and Barnes overground stations, easily accessed by South West trains from Central London. The 209 and 284 buses from Hammersmith stop at Barnes Green (a one minute walk) or you can get the 485 from Putney. There are parking spaces around Barnes Green and it's free to park after 6.30 pm. Tickets are available priced £16 (£14 concessions) Available from Old Red Lion Theatre Box Office and www.osoarts.org.uk or 020 8876 9885

DRESS REHEARSAL in A.J. Evans' second play. The first, The Supper Party, a satire about our habit of exploiting others for the sake of a good story, ran at the OSO to sold-out audiences in Spring 2012 and then again at the Tabard later that year. The first shorter version of DRESS REHEARSAL, directed by internationally-established opera director David Edwards (and featuring actors who can sing rather than - as in this instance - opera singers who can act), was staged above the Distillers pub in Hammersmith in 2013. With the help of the Clemens Brothers it was then made into a short film of the same name. A.J. Evans is now working on the script for a six-part TV series. She also draws and paints, and her illustrations have appeared in a collection of short stories by children, Stories from the Young.

About Paola Cuffolo - Paola began directing during her time at St Peter's College, Oxford, where she co-founded the opera society and directed their final two productions. She assisted John Ramster at AIMS summer school on scenes from Louise, L'Enfant et les Sortile?ges, and La Bohe?me in 2012. Also in 2012 Paola co-founded Opera Lyrica, a company for young artists. Since its inception, she has directed all of their critically-acclaimed productions, which include Die Zauberflo?te, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Cosi? Fan Tutte, Dido and Aeneas and La Traviata, both in London and elsewhere. Paola's name is spreading rapidly within fringe opera, and she is also a freelance mezzo-soprano, as well as a regular lecturer on opera for Opera Prelude. Paola is also due to take up the position of assistant to Denni Sayers in 2016 on Co-Opera Co.'s production of Peter Grimes.