Flight

State Opera’s latest production, Flight, is truly a reflection on our world.

A group of passengers waiting to board their planes arrive at the airport lounge. They are preoccupied with their own hopes and problems, and being confronted by a desperate refugee asking for help was not part of their holiday plan. So unfolds the story, which is poignant, funny and confronting, frequently at the same time. What makes it even more compelling is the fact that the story is inspired by the true-life story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who was stateless and lived in Charles de Gaulle Airport for eighteen years, unable to exit the terminal.

Three Acts take us from Morning through Night to Dawn. It begins with the Controller, sung quite beautifully by Anna Voshege surveying her domain from a lofty point, where all is as it should be except for the presence of one person in the airport lounge.  The passengers arrive, each with an agenda and a story: one couple hoping to restore romance to their relationship, one couple in which the husband, heading for a diplomatic post, is anxious to be on his way, whereas his wife, heavily pregnant, wants to remain, and does so. An older woman coming to meet her young fiancé from Spain, whom we know instinctively is not going to arrive. The steward and stewardess mingle, attending to their various duties, while wishing to find a secluded place where they can mingle with each other.

Amongst this group, then, a bedraggled man, asking for help, food, money, friendship, empathy, receives rejection, hostility and even violence. It is confronting to watch the disparity between the myriad of stories and life troubles that the passengers grapple with, and yet are seemingly oblivious to the privilege of choices that they hold, in contrast to the desperation of the refugee.

This may give the impression that Flight is a modern day morality play whereby the audience leave, chastened and determined to do better next time they see a person begging on the street. Not so.There are some genuinely very funny moments.As the flights are cancelled, due to a storm, the passengers settle down for a long wait, frustrated, fractious, and tired.

Come the dawn and change. The pregnant woman gives birth. Fiona McCardle is superb in this role.The birth of a baby in the departure lounge is celebrated as the hope of a new life, in contrast to the Refugee whose hope for a new life has been denied. The Refugee then tells the story of how he and his brother escaped, and the passengers see him as a person who suffers, not just an annoying nuisance. The Immigration Officer, sung with great gravitas by Teddy Tahu Rhodes, comes to arrest him, but, softens and allows him to remain. Passengers board their planes and the Controller and the refugee remain in the terminal alone.

Jonathan Dove’s music cleverly combines very accessible music for those who fear opera may be ‘too heavy’, within a classical tradition. The members of the ASO  conducted by Charlotte Corderoy, were excellent as always. All of the singers, except for James Lang, (Refugee) were Australian, and it is a matter of pride that SA State Opera can produce such fine performances without necessarily recruiting from overseas. James Lang, a counter tenor, both vocally and physically embodies a man who is desperate and with little hope but has not lost his humanity. 

There are only three chances to see this opera and it would be a shame to miss the Flight. So book now.

Her Majestys Theatre 8,9 and 10 May

Image: Andrew Beveridge