Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s sassy 1930s satire is a remarkable fusion of opera, dance and theatre. It’s a piece that doesn’t sit comfortably in your average theatre, so our unusual and intimate venues (both old Art Deco cinemas) and traditional cabaret-style seating suit the gritty period style of the piece.

Anna I & II (two sides of the same woman) set out to make money to build their impoverished family a house but are soon thrust into the seedier side of down-and-out Depression-era America. On their travels, they are faced with each of the seven deadly sins in turn, and though one pushes the other to sacrifice her integrity for financial gain, they appear to escape unscathed. But is failing to engage in life to avoid temptation a virtue, or is it the worst sin of all?

Weill’s synthesis of jazz, barbershop and classical styles deftly steers the mood of the story. With Anna’s ‘family’ played by a barbershop quartet, a bass in drag as their mother, and an orchestration that includes harmonium and banjo, there’s more than a hint of the traditional cabaret of 1930s Berlin in this gutsy show.

 

Running time approximately 40 mins

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DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER Kally Lloyd-Jones

CONDUCTOR Jessica Cottis
DESIGNER Janis Hart
LIGHTING Grahame Gardner

 

SINGERS
ANNA I Nadine Livingston
MOTHER Barnaby Rea
FATHER Ronan Busfield
BROTHER Damian Thantrey
BROTHER Peter Van Hulle

 

DANCERS
ANNA II Kirsty Pollock
MALE Peter Baldwin

ACTRESS Nicole Owens

 

PRESS

Winner of Herald Angel 2011

 

“Kally Lloyd-Jones’s Scottish Opera/Company Chordelia co-production of The Seven Deadly Sins was sharp, sexy and bitterly sad.”   ***** The Independent on Sunday

 

“Do not miss”   **** The Times

“Kally Lloyd-Jones, directing as well as choreographing, has created some highly-charged and sensuous movement.”   The Opera Critic

 

“This ballet chanté format allows Scottish Opera and Company Chordelia to work together in a co-production that boasts the best of both artistic worlds … There’s a strong narrative drive expressed through song and dance, and it’ll grip you in a way that ballet or opera alone may not.”   Metro

 

“Sins was an inventively realised and vibrant spectacle”   **** The Scotsman

 

“Credit for the successful revival of this period piece must go to director Kally Lloyd-Jones and designer Janis Hart, who have figured out a way to make everything that happens onstage look not only fresh and appealing but pertinent to our times”   **** Total Theater

“In the pit, the large orchestra is given shrewd and lively direction by Jessica Cottis, who on this showing is clearly a star on the rise.”   Musical Criticism

**** The Herald
**** The Edinburgh Guide

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