Ben and Imo at Orange Tree Theatre review: a small gem of a play

Normally art that’s about art irritates me but Mark Ravenhill’s play, depicting Benjamin Britten and Imogen Holst giving agonizing birth to the grand opera Gloriana for the 1953 Coronation, is gradually enthralling. Erica Whyman’s efficient production for the Royal Shakespeare Company features a fine performance from Samuel Barnett as the twitchy, petulant composer, and a captivating one from Victoria Yeates as the brisk, no-nonsense Holst, who proves far more than a mere handmaiden to genius.

Holst disparaged her own talents as a composer, musician and conductor to curate her father Gustav’s legacy and to research and promote community music and dance, before devoting herself to Britten for over two decades. Here she turns up at his leaky Aldeburgh cottage, brim-full of the promise of the new Elizabethan age and the mission of the newly founded Arts Council to fund culture for the people. Even though she hasn’t got a job title, a defined role, or a salary.