Clapham – home to hundreds of young Londoners crammed into sticky-floored house-shares of a weeknight and the sweaty dancefloors of Infernos at the weekend. Where better to stage The Rake’s Progress, Stravinsky and WH Auden’s 1951 fairytale-cum-morality-play about a country innocent swallowed whole by the temptations and corruptions of the capital? Add a cast and creative team in their 20s, and you’ve got immersive theatre before you even open the doors.
We’ve seen Rakes before from British Youth Opera (2009’s starred a certain Nicky Spence, star attraction of this year’s Last Night of the Proms – this finishing-school for students and young professionals clearly works) but never one conceived, directed, designed and stage-managed entirely by the participants themselves. In terms of professional development it’s a gift, but it made for a bit of a bumpy show on opening night.
