Shadows of September
13 – 19 September 2025
Saturday 13 September
To Belfast by plane. Follies, the landmark 1971 musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman, was revived by Northern Ireland Opera at Belfast’s splendid Grand Opera House. Most exquisite was the large orchestra—far more enjoyable than the reduced, over-amplified ensembles that seem to have become the norm these days. The uneven cast featured a few standouts, notably the great Anna-Jane Casey as Sally. The director may have been overwhelmed by some of the show’s complexities, though the overall flow improved markedly in the second act.
Sunday 14 September
A walk through Belfast’s city centre led me to The MAC, a multidisciplinary arts venue hosting The State of Belfast, an exhibition initiating a conversation about homelessness and social housing. Once buoyed by shipbuilding and maritime trade, the city entered a steep decline in the late 1970s and 1980s, marked not only by de-industrialisation but also by the violence and political turmoil of the Troubles. Although Belfast’s economy has been recovering in recent decades, homelessness remains a pressing issue. Two films added depth and resonance: Hearsay at Point Zero by Marta Dyczkowska, recently shot in Belfast, and Steve McQueen’s haunting Grenfell (2019) — a largely soundless aerial study of London’s Grenfell Tower, filmed a few months after the fire that claimed 72 lives.
Back to Paris by plane. Choreographer Lia Rodrigues’s Borda, presented at the Centquatre, emerged, we were told, from the many meanings of the word borda in Brazilian Portuguese, and from a desire to draw inspiration from the costumes designed for Rodrigues’s company over the years. The performance, initially silent, opened on a mesmerising image: barely discernible shadows morphed into organic, interconnected masses that did not immediately make sense to the eye, but gradually unfolded as a self-sufficient ecosystem of dancers, accessories, and costumes. Sadly, the level of excitement abated thereafter, and the performance ended on a relative low, weakened by loud, rhythmic music that was more distracting than inspiring.
Tuesday 16 September
Paris – The concert by the Münchner Philharmoniker under Lahav Shani at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées left something to be desired. After a similarly uninspiring experience the previous week with the Wiener Philharmoniker, I found myself wondering whether the theatre’s new acoustic panels, added to the back of the stage for symphonic concerts, might have had an impact. Following a lacklustre rendition of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto by soloist Lisa Batiashvili, and an even more disappointing performance of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony (which usually lifts me off the ground but failed to this time), the orchestra finally reached some measure of transcendence in glowing excerpts from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.
Wednesday 17 September
Paris – Attended a French-language performance of Little Shop of Horrors (La Petite Boutique des horreurs), directed by Christian Hecq and Valérie Lesort at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin — a transfer from their 2022 Opéra Comique production. The production benefited from Hecq and Lesort’s keen visual instincts but was undermined by all-too-common weaknesses: poor overall flow, weak lyrical cadences, and several numbers staged as stand-alone variety acts rather than integrated theatrical scenes. Yet, the property is strong enough that the overall experience remained enjoyable.
Thursday 18 September
Paris, UGC Maillot – Downton Abbey III offered a felicitous conclusion to the long-running series, an elegant masterclass in weaving together narrative threads with an expert blend of historical perspective, emotion, and humour. Not only did it illustrate the transformations unfolding at the dawn of the 1930s, it also built upon the strengths of the franchise and its now-familiar cast. The use of Noël Coward as an embodiment of changing times could not have pleased me more; the inclusion of “I’ll See You Again,” an absolute favourite of mine, was the cherry on top of the Yorkshire pudding.
Friday 19 September
Paris – Attended a performance of Marius von Mayenburg‘s Peu Importe (Robin Ormond’s adaptation into French of his 2021 German-language play Egal) at La Scala Paris. Von Mayenburg’s writing draws on the tradition of European absurdist drama, but here, in my opinion, it leaned more towards Miller or Albee in its cruel, systematic dissection of a middle-class couple’s delusions.
And so, for now, the lights dim… until the next act.