In Five Years' Time
‘Drama in song’ by Edward Lambert based on an experimental play by Spain’s favourite poet, Federico García Lorca.
This surreal work explores themes of love, identity, decay and death, yet does so in the manner of a fairy tale, clothed in fun and topsy-turviness. Lorca himself said his dream-world was impossible to stage, but The Music Troupe has put together a cast of 8 wonderful singers - playing 14 roles - to bring this operatic cabaret to life in the atmospheric surroundings of The Space Theatre in London's East End. The approachable music features Lambert's trademark lyricism "without feeling the least bit dated" (Broadway World).
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The Space Theatre
London E14 3RS (see below) Tuesday 24 February 2026 at 19:00 (preview) Wednesday 25 February at 19:00 Thursday 26 February at 19:00 Friday 27 February at 19:00 Saturday 28 February at 15:00 The Croft Hall, Hungerford
RG17 0HY Sunday 1 March 2026 at 16:30 |
Federico: James Schouten (tenor)
Rosita: Catherine Hooper (soprano) Bridesmaid 1: Rosalind Dobson (soprano) Bridesmaid 2: Mae Heydorn (mezzo-soprano) Fernando: Thomas Stevenson (bass) Juan: Carlos Felipe Cerchiaro (baritone) Pedro: Jean-Max Lattemann (counter-tenor) Dying Child: Rosalind Dobson (soprano) Dying Cat: Mae Heydorn (mezzo-soprano) Belisa: Lucy Gibbs (mezzo-soprano) Colombina: Jean-Max Lattemann (counter-tenor) Arlecchino: Carlos Felipe Cerchiaro (baritone) Pierrot: Thomas Stevenson (bass) Italian Countess: Lucy Gibbs (mezzo-soprano) |
Music: Edward Lambert
Words: adapted by the composer after the play Así que pasen cinco años by Federico García Lorca (1931)
Musical Director / Piano: Alex Norton
Accordion: Jing Jia
Lighting: Simon Pike
Costumes: tbc
Movement: Jenny Weston
Stage Director: Walter Hall
The accompaniment for this performance has been arranged by the composer
from the original scoring for strings, clarinet, horn, percussion and harp.
Words: adapted by the composer after the play Así que pasen cinco años by Federico García Lorca (1931)
Musical Director / Piano: Alex Norton
Accordion: Jing Jia
Lighting: Simon Pike
Costumes: tbc
Movement: Jenny Weston
Stage Director: Walter Hall
The accompaniment for this performance has been arranged by the composer
from the original scoring for strings, clarinet, horn, percussion and harp.
The performance lasts about 1 hour 50 minutes (including an interval)
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A story that sings...
The main theme of the opera is the Poet’s search for identity in its many forms while the non-linear narrative explores the nature of time and truth. All the characters seem to slide into disillusionment and decay while a troupe of circus clowns, by contrast, is happily immersed in its own theatricality. At the start of the opera, its central character, the poet Federico, is betrothed to the voluptuous young Belisa. Since she is only 15 (marriage at 14 was legal in Spain until 2015), this gives him an excuse to postpone the wedding for five years. Impatient for sexual fulfilment, she takes a lover. Her Bridesmaids express frustration with Federico’s procrastination. Later in the opera, Belisa is ‘reincarnated’ as a deranged 'Italian' countess whose inner life has evaporated; hence, perhaps, the description of her as a Mask. Federico’s three male friends are cynical, ebullient and sensitive in turn, representing celibacy, promiscuity and homosexuality. They metamorphose into a trio of circus clowns who appear from time to time and guide Federico through the 'forest' of life. Meanwhile, Federico spurned his secretary, Rosita, but when the Bridesmaids tell him of Belisa’s infidelity, he resolves to seek Rosita out again. Although she once loved him, and perhaps does so still, she exacts revenge by telling him to wait five years. Disillusioned and in emotional turmoil, Federico meets a tragic end when assassinated by his friends who’ve turned against him and embraced the Falangist cause. In a sub-plot, a neighbour’s child is tragically dying and youths have cruelly stoned a cat. The Cat and Child compare notes as they lie in the mortuary; they are apprehensive about the afterlife to where they eventually pass over at the end of the opera. |
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La Barraca performs Calderon's Life is a Dream
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In January 1930 the long-standing military dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera was overthrown and this event led to the establishment of a Republic the following year. In the Constitution that was then adopted, the power of the Catholic Church was severely curtailed, and progressive policies of rights, freedoms and suffrage were carried out. As part of these reforms, the Republic’s Ministry of Education funded a theatre company charged with bringing classical Spanish theatre to rural communities and towns which were otherwise deprived of culture: “La Barraca”, as it was called, was decades ahead of its time. Federico García Lorca was appointed its director, and wrote for the group the trilogy of revolutionary plays that have made him world famous: Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernada Alba. Así que pasen cinco años immediately precedes this period and was heavily influenced by the surrealist movements of the time. Lorca’s friends Salvator Dali and Luis Buñuel had collaborated in the making of the film Un Chien Andalou (1929) and the poet was experimenting to see how this wild and wonderful new style could translate into live theatre. This operatic version is a free translation and adaptation of the text and was designed for showing in smaller venues. It inevitably irons out some of the impracticalities of Lorca’s draft which was dated 19th August 1931. Five years later, to the day, as the Nationalists rose up on the outbreak of civil war, Lorca was executed. The play received its first professional production in Spain only in 1978 and has seldom made its way into the English-speaking world.
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Getting there...
The Space, E14 3RS
Closest station is Mudchute DLR, then 10 minutes walk, but it's very easy and probably quicker by bus 135, 277 or D7 from Canary Wharf station (Jubilee or Elizabeth line). Between them, the buses are frequent, you'd be unlucky to wait long.
Closest station is Mudchute DLR, then 10 minutes walk, but it's very easy and probably quicker by bus 135, 277 or D7 from Canary Wharf station (Jubilee or Elizabeth line). Between them, the buses are frequent, you'd be unlucky to wait long.
If arriving on the Jubilee Line...
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...go up the escalator...
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... and again...
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Turn left when you emerge from the station... walk a few yards straight on and cross the road...
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... and get to bus stop L where any bus - 135, 277 or D7 - takes you the few stops to The Space Theatre.
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If arriving on the Elizabeth Line, take the westerly exit...
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... and turn L at the top of the escalator...
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... walk a little and up those stairs to the street...
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... look R and you'll see a bus stop under a bridge...
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... and get to bus stop F. 135, 277 and D7 all go to The Space Theatre
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Alternatively, cross the road from bus stop F and get the DLR to Mudchute, from where you'll have a 10 minutes walk to the theatre.
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Buses stop directly outside The Space - that's it there, the theatre is a converted church
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Croft Hall,
Hungerford RG17 0HY |
Can't make it?
Please buy a no-show ticket!
It’s hard these days getting any artistic endeavour off the ground and we are a small charity mounting performances of a brand new opera. In doing so, we are supporting the work of talented, professional artists during a time of dwindling opportunities for them AND - we fly the flag for the survival of opera because without new, small-scale, economical works the art form will become ever more associated with its expensive and exclusive past.
Please buy a no-show ticket!
It’s hard these days getting any artistic endeavour off the ground and we are a small charity mounting performances of a brand new opera. In doing so, we are supporting the work of talented, professional artists during a time of dwindling opportunities for them AND - we fly the flag for the survival of opera because without new, small-scale, economical works the art form will become ever more associated with its expensive and exclusive past.
