The show begins in a Greek restaurant. Bored housewife Helen, taking a fancy to a Greek waiter, imagines herself back into Ancient and Mythological Greece...You could be forgiven for thinking you had walked into an unknown Gilbert and Sullivan opera set in, of all places, a Greek taverna. But this is La Belle Helene by Offenbach, translated into English and updated by Kit Hesketh-Harvey, performed by the aptly named Merry Opera Company whose mission in life is to make sure we dont fall asleep in our seats. In Troy Boy they succeed admirably.Christopher Diffey is simply gorgeous as the Greek waiter who takes on the mantle of Paris in Helens reverie, his lyric tenor voice transporting one to the summit of Mount Olympus. Greek honey flowed in the luxurious bass voice of Marcin Gesla as Agamemnon. Rosalind Coad makes a sublime Helen, saucy and sensual, sinful and spoilt.The mixing of modern dress and traditional costume doesnt quite work and gives the impression that the company werent sure how and where to set it so plumped for the best of both worlds. Its camp and deliberately silly in places, and full of the most outrageous bad jokes. Achilles, youre such a heel and an inevitable reference to Homerphobic are two among many. For my money, it needed to be slicker and less laboured for such jokes to work; but theres no denying the exuberance and playfulness of the company and the singing which is sheer bliss. This was my first encounter with the Merry Opera Company and hopefully not my last. How wonderful to find singing of this calibre and a production of such ambrosial naughtiness above, of all places, a pub in North London. Theyre on tour - seek them out.At the end of Act Two, the characters revert back to Greek taverna staff with kitchen implements threateningly at hand. Theres very little to fault here except for the necessity to run the first two acts together, making a rather long first half - it could lose twenty minutes or so - but by the end youll feel as though youve spent a night under the stars on Santorini.The second half works like a treat and ends with Helen sailing off in a pristine white boat with her majestic Paris. Would that all Greek holidays ended like that.
