Director/theatre-maker Sylvaine Strike (pictured left), whose work more often than not justifies a search for adequate superlatives, is presently making her début as a director of opera – and relishing every moment despite the challenges attendant on unfamiliar territory, says BEVERLEY BROMMERT
As she tackles Rossini’s ebullient Barber of Seville with her signature blend of confidence and creativity, Strike is aiming to marry traditional opera and physical theatre, and there could hardly be a better vehicle than this for harmonising two genres which, despite their apparent diversity, prove unexpectedly compatible.
Long gone are the days of operatic performance being a simple matter of “stand and deliver”; vocal proficiency now shares the honours with acting ability since both have become desiderata in portrayal of personae, and to this Strike brings the additional tool of body language.
With a couple of weeks to go before opening night, rehearsals are progressing apace, and anyone privileged to attend one cannot fail to note the zest with which these performers embrace the demands of their roles, resulting in a joyous, elegant buffoonery entirely in tune with Rossini’s period and mind-set.
Strike attributes this collective joie de vivre to the liberation of shedding physical inhibitions: “At the outset we had a full day’s workshop to let the cast find personal freedom in creating their respective parts through a combination of voice, facial repertoire and body movement so that they can be seen.”
Qualified to synthesize diverse forms of performing arts
She herself is well qualified to synthesize diverse forms of performing arts, having begun from a young age to train in ballet before proceeding to drama school in her late teens; thereafter, enchanted by Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre de Soleil, she graduated from UCT with a BA in Performance, to embrace the rigorous discipline of physical theatre as a bursar of the French Embassy when she studied under the iconic Jacques Lecoq in France.
Key to preparing her cast for the Barber is embodiment in the operatic genre of the attitudes of stock characters borrowed from the Commedia dell’Arte by Rossini for this work. The result is stylized comedy, both merry and engaging, that (as Strike remarks) allows the artists to accept that their bodies hold “no limitations when they add physical precision to their vocal prowess”: an exhilarating quantum leap for performers accustomed to the dictates of traditional characterisation.
Apart from the pleasure afforded by this process, Strike is also delighted by the intimacy of a venue like Theatre on the Bay, ideally suited to staging this Rossini masterpiece.
Lack of orchestral accompaniment in such a compact space, far from proving a disadvantage, becomes an asset through crafty direction. Strike turns pianist into protagonist as Rossini (impersonated by CTO’s musical director Jan Hugo) generates music before our eyes and interacts with the cast in an organic integration of composing and singing.
As she ignites libretto and score into vivid staging, Strike sums up the whole endeavour in one word: “rewarding”. That is likely to be the response from the audience as well when Theatre on the Bay welcomes devotees of opera (and perhaps some patrons less familiar with the genre) to this innovative version of a popular classic early next month.
What: The Barber of Seville
Where and when: Theatre on the Bay from 5 to 17 August 2025. Both casts of principals are listed on the Webtickets platform as the Red Cast and the Blue Cast
Tickets: Webtickets
WS
