Robert Tanitch reviews ENO’s The Handmaid’s Tale at the London Coliseum

Robert Tanitch reviews ENO’s The Handmaid’s Tale at the London Coliseum

I came to Paul Ruders’ opera totally fresh, having not read Margaret Atwood’s1985 futuristic dystopian novel and neither having seen the1990 film nor the TV series.

The opera premiered in Copenhagen in 2000 and was last staged by ENO in 2003. The libretto is by Paul Bentley. Highly prophetic, it now feels even more significant and pertinent.

But with the horrors going on in the Ukraine reported daily, do you want to spend an evening at the theatre watching more horrors? The running time is 2 hours 45 minutes.

ENO’s artistic director Annilese Miskimmon directs and Joana Carneiro conducts. A strong cast has been assembled, headed by Kate Lindsey as Offred. The production team, all female, took a bow. The curtain calls went on and on.

The story is set in the 21st century in the near future. The USA government has been overthrown and the President assassinated. A brutal totalitarian state, a Biblical-based dictatorship, run Taliban-style by right wing fundamentalists, has been established.

Welcome to the Republic of Gilead, a patriarchal, white supremacist, theonomic society. Adultery, divorce, abortion, homosexuality, transgender are crimes.

Women are denied the right to work and own property. They are not allowed to read or write. Women are for child-bearing purposes only. The birth-rate has plummeted and fertile women are forcibly impregnated.

The Alban Berg-like music, the harsh dissonance and the religious choral work, all have an undeniable impact. ENO is hoping to attract an audience who don’t normally go to the opera and have seen the TV series and perhaps might be persuaded to see it

During the interval, I wondered whether I would be “enjoying” the opera more (if that is the right word) if I had read the novel. I certainly “enjoyed” Act 2 far more than I did Act 1, thinking it dramatically much better.

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