Operotica: Lovers in Every Lifetime ★★★½ ☆☆

Operotica: Lovers in Every Lifetime ★★★½

Opera Gets Queer, Camp and Deliciously Sacrilegious

Is Operotica a new genre? Because after Lovers in Every Lifetime, it might just be.

With a three-person cast and live musician, this gloriously queer cabaret takes opera, drags it through a gothic nightclub, adds lesbian romance, nuns, religious puns, sex innuendo and a drag queen Séayoncé, then somehow emerges with something that feels genuinely fresh.

At its centre are two lesbian lovers whose connection follows them through multiple lives and different moments in history. It is a clever premise, giving the production plenty of room to jump between characters, periods and increasingly ridiculous situations while maintaining a surprisingly strong romantic thread.

And vocally, this cast can seriously deliver. This is not simply cabaret performers having a crack at opera: there are some enormous operatic moments here, with the female leads particularly impressive. Several ascending vocal slides and runs are executed flawlessly, producing some of the biggest musical highlights of the show.

Imagine taking the sexual tension of Carmen, sprinkling it with lesbian love, pegging, burlesque, drag and a touch of gay panto, and you are somewhere in the wonderfully strange territory of Operotica.

The script is packed with puns, particularly religious ones, and the performers clearly know exactly how ridiculous the whole thing is. More importantly, you can tell they are having enormous fun performing it. The gothic aesthetic and excellent lighting design further elevate the production and give the madness a surprisingly polished frame.

There are a few rougher edges. Early in the show, the piano occasionally overpowers the vocals, and there are a couple of blocking moments that could be tightened. Some sequences also run two or three minutes beyond their natural punchline. A little trimming would make an already energetic show considerably sharper.

But Operotica: Lovers in Every Lifetime is ultimately a very good time. Camp, queer, musically ambitious and gleefully inappropriate, it feels like the company may genuinely have stumbled upon its own little genre.

If you’re easily offended, this probably isn’t your show. If lesbian opera, drag queens, nuns and sacrilegious sex jokes sound like your kind of Fringe evening, however, welcome to Operotica.

★★★½