Say Hallelujah for this moving feast
Handel’s Messiah is one of the most dazzlingly beautiful pieces in the classical repertoire, yet the oratorio was conceived in difficult circumstances, and this forms the basis of this moving and lightly humorous play by Nick Drake.
The play opens with rehearsals above a pub in Chester, where the ageing Handel (David Horovitch) is smarting from a disastrous opera in London that has left his financial future uncertain. Desperately trying to hang on to past glories, he chides the chaotic chorus and reminds them of his status (“I am my own industry!”). But soon he has decamped to Dublin, where the
Messiah will premiere, and reluctantly takes on an actress and singer, Susannah Cibber (Kelly Price), who is unemployable following a scandal in London. The two form an uneasy alliance, with Handel enchanted by the emotional truth in her voice and Cibber fascinated by her cantankerous, egotistical teacher, whom she believes is haunted by a secret sadness.
In truth, Drake’s play (which had a short run last year) spends too much time explaining the plot through dialogue, and there is not enough dramatic variation in the various short scenes. But director Jonathan Munby has deftly woven in large extracts from the Messiah, skilfully performed by The Sixteen and given a splendid resonance by the oak-walled Playhouse.
The acting is strong, too. Horovitch makes Handel an endearing grump, rather than a monster, and the beautiful Price expertly shows the emotional damage that lies behind Cibber’s composed frame. Meanwhile, Sean Campion is terrifically versatile in several smaller roles, including the librettist Charles Jennens, and Crazy Crow, a bodysnatcher who finds salvation through the power of music.
Indeed, All the Angels is similar in theme to another recent Playhouse hit, Claire van Kampen’s Farinelli and the
King, which showed how music can provide succour at our darkest hour and restore our faith in humanity. The Messiah was originally a work for Easter but, amid the numinous glow of the candlelit Playhouse, All the Angels feels like a genuine Christmas treat.