Challenging musical delights a full house
REVIEW
Chess, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, until Saturday, March 16
This is one of the most challenging musicals of its kind to be produced by an amateur group.
A musical score and dialogue which stretches the talents, both singing and acting, to the extremes.
But the Irving Stage Company, on its 60thanniversary year, manages to pull off a show full of colour, foot-tapping songs and great dance routines, which was clearly appreciated by a full house on its opening night.
“Chess”, which features the music of Benny Anderson and Björn Ulvaeus, of Abba fame, along with lyrics by Tim Rice, evolves around a love triangle like no other.
On one side is the ill-mannered American Grandmaster FreddiE Trumper, played by Glen ConnEr. Then in the second corner is the intense Russian champion Anatoly Sergievsky, played by Ben Child, who plans on defecting to the West. And thirdly the Hungarian-American female chess second Florence Vassy, performed wonderfully by Anna Damigella, who arrives at the International Championships managing one player but falling in love with the other.
From Bangkok to Budapest, the players, lovers, politicians, and spies all struggle to get the upper-hand.
“Chess” was a significant and powerful piece of music theatre for its time as it reflected the Cold War tensions present in the 1980s.
Released and staged at the height of the strong anti-communist agenda that came to be known as the “Reagan Doctrine”, “Chess” addressed and satirized the hostility of the international political atmosphere of the 1980s through a brilliantly powerful score.
There are many highlights throughout the show but particularly the two best known songs … “One Night In Bangkok”, which had all the glitter surrounding the Far East city, and the dynamic duet “I Know Him So Well’,’ performed with great feeling and superb singing by Anna Damigella and Anna Sutton, who takes the role of Anatoly’s wife Svetlana.
“Chess” has five more performances from today, Wednesday, March 13, to Saturday, March 16.
Russell Cook