Edinburgh Fringe 2024
Almost Austen
Louise Geller
Genre: Live Music, Music, Opera and Operatic Theatre
Venue: Paradise
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Art can give us inspiration and comfort, sometimes it also can teach us great lessons. Kathy learns this during one romantic summer in Bath. For the audience this means a highly entertaining hour with laughter and very varied and exceptionally well sung music.
Review
Kathy introduces herself as a final year English Literature student. She loves Jane Austen’s work, especially Northanger Abbey and identifies with its heroin Catherine, not just because they share the same name. Being at university in Bath she is swept up with the Austiness of it all. When she meets a handsome and clumsy stranger at the opera she starts a whirlwind affair. Needless to say, her summer doesn’t end in a Northanger Abbey way or maybe it does?
So far as expected? When opera and Austen come together most will expect a hammy-cheesy show. That this is not the case here has a lot to do with Geller’s talent as a comedienne. Her script fluctuates between flowery poetic language and brutal 21st century realism coated in clever puns, one liners and the occasional dad joke. The juxtaposition of at times daft, at others very intelligent jokes with Austen’s work makes this show so delightful. Geller knows exactly how long she can let her audience wait before a punch lines lands hard and tickles the diaphragm. The fact that often one doesn’t see the twists and turns of the funny lines coming makes this show feel much faster than the hour it is long.
She cleverly weaves Kathy’s love story along the core story line of Austen’s posthumously published novel and punctuated it with appropriate quotes from the book. This works very well and provides an anchor from which the narration weaves out. Some of the quotes are more serious others, thanks to Geller’s delivery just straight out funny. The show has a very sweet happy end, that people didn’t expect. There were genuinely ‘ohs’ and ‘ahs’ from the audience comprised of all ages. Almost Austen is definitely suitable for families with older children.
Louise Geller has a bright soprano voice that has a bell like quality. There are few singers who can convincingly sing opera arias and musical numbers. Geller is definitely one of them. She had no difficulties with high notes and fast coloratura passages in her classical pieces. Here Endless Pleasure, Endless Love from Semele (Handel) was sung equally carefree as was Je Veux Vivre from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. Der Hölle Rache from Die Zauberflöte (Mozart) was executed with great accuracy. While most people are in awe of the end of the first verse with its staccato in the Pfeifenregister and the vertigo inducing top Fs, the really difficult bits are the triplets on ‘alle Bande’ which she mastered with ease. However, both the French and German arias could do with a routine polishing with regards to pronunciation. For her songs from musicals Geller chose from a wide variety of works from different periods. She moved from opera to musical with The Point Of No Return from Phantom of the Opera (Lloyd Webber), which worked really well. The audience loved I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady (Loewe). The songs I’m A Stranger Here Myself from A Touch of Venues (Weill), In A Very Unusual Way from Nine (Yeston) and My White Knight from The Music Man (Wilson) were very well placed within the story. The absolute highlight for me was the incredibly sensitive and intense rendition of There Is A Fine, Fine Line from Avenue Q (Lopez & Marx). I would go so far and say this is the best version I have ever heard live or on a recording.
James Hall accompanied on the piano. He was supportive when needed, became invisible when the story line required and proved to have some decent acting and dance skills when Geller pushed him into the foreground.
This is a revival of a production for the 2021 Jane Austen Festival and deserves to tour more widely. While the focus is more on musical numbers than opera arias, I still feel it is a nice way to introduce people unfamiliar with opera or musical or even both to these art forms.
Pasticcios and their more contemporary cousins juke box musicals have been around for a several hundred years. It is a good way to bring a variety of music to a new audience. As people were leaving I overheard someone saying they had never been to an opera before but they really enjoyed this show. It is certainly a very enjoyable introduction.
