Riders to the Sea – artsdepot

Often, stories centred within specific contexts can resonate far beyond the reaches of the narrative – this is what we mean when we say that a piece of art may be universal. In the same way, forms or structures of performance, while quite alien to how we conduct ourselves in daily life, can still speak to, and deeply move, us. Opera is one such form, and Riders To The Sea, here reimagined and expanded by OperaUpClose and performed at artsDepot, is one such story.

The production, directed by Flora McIntosh, features two parts: the first, a new prologue (“The Last Bit of the Moon”), composed by Michael Betteridge, and the second, the 1937 original Riders to the Sea written by Ralph Vaughn Williams with new chamber orchestration, also by Betteridge. Part one offers a window into the grief and guilt of the last remaining son, Bartley, of an Inishmaan family, while part two follows the suffering that has rived the entire family in the aftermath of the recent loss of another son, Michael, whose body might have been found far up north. The music throughout simultaneously engages and alienates, fostering both emotional pathos and an estranged awe at the all-powerful forces of sea and storm. Such experiences are further nurtured by the set and the projections, all the work of designer Cheng Keng – Riders to the Sea is a universe of off white and brown and blue, with the only shock of colour being the deep red of grief objects; a series of images, of family life, of the whirl and eddies of water, of the spinning tire of a bicycle abandoned at the beach, resonates with the events on stage and the dialogue of the characters, offering yet another avenue into their grief.

The performances often capture this family’s intense loss, although such immersion into the emotional reality of the story is not always consistent. In the prologue, Neil Balfour, playing Bartley, sits at a laptop, journaling out his grief, and in this way his proclamations of pain and confusion feel more internally directed rather than shared with the audience; the voices that buffet him don’t fully capture the sinister, haunting quality one would expect – only in specific moments, like his ecstatic release when bathed in the light of the moon, do we fully experience the depth of his feeling, though when we do it is powerful indeed. Lauren Young, playing our matriarch Maurya, is stellar, manifesting a mother completely overwhelmed by grief and pain and rage, a depiction elegantly complicated partway through by a turn into a kind of manic delusion, both disturbing and engrossing. Remaining siblings Cathleen and Nora, played by Julia Mariko and Susie Buckle, respectively, round out the cast with effective expressions of two remaining facets of the familial grieving process, carefully balancing empathetic concern and the need to keep everything together. Instrumentalists Bryony Middleton, Ilona Suoamalainen and Emily Wilson provide a powerful musical backbone to the events of the story, bringing to life a score audiences can get lost in.

Run time is 65 minutes with no interval.

Bookings run until March 3rd, 2025 in Hull, Oxford and Blackpool, and can be found here: https://www.operaupclose.com/riders-to-the-sea

Reviewer: Zak Rosen

Reviewed: 18th February 2025

North West End UK Rating: