Review: Opus at Seattle Repertory Theatre.
OPUS is a story about a fictional famous string quartet. Playwrighter, Michael Hollinger has used some of his life history as a former string quartet musician to write a play that is droll and pitch perfect for the audience.
This production is directed by Braden Abraham, who has previously directed other shows at the Rep including Betrayal, Breakin’ Hearts & Takin’ Names and My Name is Rachel Corrie.
The play opens with all four former members being interviewed for a TV or movie documentary about their famous group, The Lazara String Quartet. The players are Carl (Charles Leggett), Elliot (Allen Fitzpatrick), Alan (Shawn Belyea) and Dorian (Todd Jefferson Moore), who are all men in their 40’s and have played together for some time.
The opening flashbacks set the tone for the player’s love for their craft and the desire for perfection that the musicians strive for in their performances. Dorian speaks about the group and how their playing “Compares to love making, and discourse among four reasonable people.”
The play is a short 90 minutes but it is so dialogue driven that you soon know each of the four characters intimately. You learn how they became owners of two very precious instruments hand-crafted in 1710 from one tree by a famous violin maker, a Pietro Lazara. You find out who they love, their health problems, who’s sleeping with who, it all comes together. But overall there is the sense and knowledge of what the music means to them, it is everything.
And when they come together to play it is a seamless assembled quartet. The actors do a wonderful job of make believe. It really seems like they are playing their instruments and not that we are listening to recorded music.
Opus plays like an episode of VH1’s Behind the Scenes, the show that sometimes exposes why well loved groups suddenly break up. When the group is performing, everything is great between them, but when when they walk off the stage it’s back to four different personalities. The group fires Dorian who was Elliot’s partner. Dorian was the “soul” of the group and they have been invited to play at the White House in six days and need to find a replacement. When they finally select Grace (Chelsey Rives), who is much younger than the other three and female, the story gets even better as relationships are strained by in-fighting and one member finally finds redemption.
It was a very enjoyable evening watching a delightful cast give a glimpse of a world few people really know about. Opus is a rare chance to see the behind the scenes story of professional classical musicians.
Opus runs through December 6, 2009 with tickets ranging from $30 – $52. Anyone 25 and under may purchase tickets for only $12 for any performance (with ID – call for details). For more info and tickets, visit www.seattlerep.org.
– Ethel W.
