South Pacific – Opera House, Manchester
Chichester Festival Theatre has become known for taking on some of the most challenging classics and transforming them into a triumph. Director Daniel Evans’s lively reappraisal of South Pacific is no exception.
On one of Manchester’s hottest days on record the audience was transported to the South Pacific where US troops were occupying a Polynesian island in the WW2 conflict with Japan.
The opening scene sees nurse Nellie Forbush (Gina Beck) on a coffee date with Emile de Becque (Julian Overden), a middle-aged plantation owner that she recently met at the officer’s club. De Becque is an ultra-suave Frenchman with a murderous past but despite this we see young nurse Forbush failing madly in love with him.
The US troops are kicking their heels while restlessly waiting for the...