A delightful show full of surprises despite some inconsistencies.

Kew Courthouse

26 August, 2014

Like the pied piper, instrumentalists dressed in white led the audience into the auditorium at Kew Courthouse to signal the beginning of Evan Lawson’s Forest Collective production, The Garden. The Garden is a carefully constructed chamber opera dealing with the pitfalls of love, drawing together music of, among others, Schumann, Schubert, and Mozart, interspersed with Lawson’s own compositions. Leading the procession was young accordionist William Elm, whose playing and presence lent a cabaret-like sound to the ensemble. Unfortunately, although the accordion featured prominently at the beginning, Elm was seated at the back of the ensemble, and he received no further solo moments. As we took our seats, projections appeared on the wall behind the ensemble, depicting lively illustrations of the couple around which the work was based. This lovely and inventive touch was sadly only an intermittent feature of the evening.

The main program opened with Lawson’s imaginative arrangement of Schumann’s Im wunderschönen Monat Mai from Dichterliebe. Schumann’s music came alive in Lawson’s hand. The flute, played by Hank Clifton, danced with trills and flutter tongue, representing the singing birds described in Henrich Heine’s original poem, and...