This is a superb production in all respects. It tells the story of the collaboration between two dominant characters in the world of music in the early 1950s. Benjamin Britten (Ben) at that time the foremost living British composer and Imogen Holst (Imo), the daughter of the renowned composer Gustav Holst. The play started life as a radio play in 2013 and then was adapted by Mark Ravenhill for the RSC premiering at the Swan Theatre in March 2024. It has now transferred to the small, intimate theatre in the round at the Orange Tree in Richmond.
Britten has been given the task of composing, in only 9 months, a new opera to be performed at the Coronation Gala of Queen Elizabeth the Second in 1952. He has chosen for his subject the rather unpromising tale of the interaction between the first queen Elizabeth and her sometime friend and sometime enemy the Duke of Essex . The opera is to be called Gloriana. Not surprisingly he is struggling. Like many a genius he has periods of great creativity and periods where depression sinks upon him, and he finds it very difficult to compose. He turns to his longtime friend Imogen to help him out. She is well positioned to do so, having helped her illustrious father with his own work and then forged a career in teaching and working with community groups, amateurs and others to foster their musical talents.
As personalities, however, they are chalk and cheese. Ben is subject to rapid emotional swings and in a permanent relationship with the renowned tenor Peter Pears while Imo is a free spirit, feisty, unattached but something of a lost soul unable to find a stable and satisfying place for her talents in the musical world. Their collaboration on Gloriana is a presented as a continual challenge to both of them. They need each other, but in turns hate and are irresistibly attracted to working together. Mark Ravenhill’s text is lively with sparkling dialogue, often funny, but also sinking into darker emotional depths.
The acting is first class throughout. Samuel Barnett as Ben has the more complex character, in one moment furious and cruel at Imogen’s influence on him and then showing enormous appreciation for what she is doing knowing that he will get the credit for whatever emerges. Victoria Yeates as Imo is irrepressible, she dances, sings and demonstrates the most enormous energy throughout although at times the difficulty of working with a complex genius like Britten is too much even for her.
The play is set around a small grand piano on a revolve and the intimacy of the Orange Tree performance space, with the actors never far away from the audience provides for a very intense theatrical experience. A limited amount of additional furniture: chair, drinks trolley, and standard lamp are moved around by the two actors as required. The director, Erica Whyman knows just how to present a production in the round. She kept the characters moving so that they were never standing or sitting with their backs to any part of the audience for very long and yet avoided uncomfortable moves.
For a play about music and musicians there is relatively little music in it. Occasionally, the actors play a few bars on the piano. During the scene changes distorted images of musical scripts were projected around the sides of the balcony. But essentially this is a play not about music but about two very different people working on a major project to a tight timetable and the joys and pain of such collaboration. If you like to play with a strong plotline then this may not be for you but if you want to see two excellent actors bring a fine script to life it should not be missed.
Ben and Imo is playing at the Orange Tree Theatre in Wimbledon until 17th May 2025. Tickets are available from https://orangetreetheatre.co.uk/
Reviewer: Paul Ackroyd
Reviewed: 25th April 2025
North West End UK Rating: