Fire in My Mouth review – Wolfe’s multimedia oratorio tells its tragic story with focus and power

Scissors snapped shut in unison with metallic bite … Fire in My Mouth at Royal Festival Hall, London. Photograph: Pete Woodhead

On Saturday 25 March, 1911, Greenwich Village’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory caught fire. One hundred and forty-six garment workers – mostly recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women – died, many prevented from escaping the flames by stairwells and exits locked by the management.

The disaster is the catalyst for Pulitzer-winning composer Julia Wolfe’s 2019 multimedia oratorio Fire in My Mouth: the third in her series of large-scale works drawing on the history of the American worker, and a punchy opener to the Southbank Centre’s autumn season.