Two hundred years before that hilarious farce The Play That Goes Wrong became a West End hit, Italian playwrights had come up with a similar comic formula, targeting the often disastrous nature of rehearsals before a show. Later, Gaetano Donizetti grabbed the idea and took it into the realm of opera, walking us backstage to witness the tantrums, jealousies, fist-fights and sheer panic that sets in when the clock is ticking inexorably towards curtain-up.
His two-act comedy Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali this year joins a laudably long list of rarely heard works revived by Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opera since 1951. It’s a piece that fits perfectly into this season’s theme of “theatre within theatre”. Orpha Phelan’s brilliantly inventive new production, graced with a golden cast, has the whole house rocking with laughter from start to finish.
