Pacific Overtures

Pacific Overtures may just be the most audacious and courageous of all the mould-breaking shows Stephen Sondheim has written, and Michael Strassen’s sombre, shattering staging matches its ambition with a lean, stripped-back intensity.

There is a concentrated focus throughout in the show’s compelling telling of the story of American colonial ambitions in 1850s Japan, which had been untroubled by foreigners for over 250 years but then saw the unwanted arrival of US warships. Sondheim’s rumbling, ravishing score is full of meditative melodic brilliance, and it is stunningly served here by the band of four under the musical direction of Richard Bates and the fine vocal performances of the 13-strong ensemble cast.

While Sondheim offers a display of his customary verbal dexterity and pastiche style in Please Hello, as a series of admirals from different countries hilariously played here by Joel Harper-Jackson, Marc Lee Joseph, Ian Mowat and Lee van Geleen make their own appeals to the Japanese, what marks this show out is the aching simplicity and directness of many of its songs. Someone in a Tree is an extremely evocative piece of storytelling and is given layered expression here in a feat of directorial ingenuity that matches the song’s own dramatic brilliance.

Strassen always allows the show and its songs to speak for themselves. It is only surprising to find no Asian cast members among the company, but then there are no women either; this is a view of Japan filtered entirely through western eyes, but employing Japanese theatre techniques.

Mark Shenton