In an age of classical adaptations – or “reimagining”, as the English National Opera calls its production of Puccini’s Tosca – there seem to be few limits to how far directors can stray from the original.
Last year, the RSC’s Hamlet Hail to the Thief set Shakespeare to Radiohead. Cynthia Erivo recently played all 23 characters in Dracula, alongside pre-recorded footage and live camera work. Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at the Harold Pinter Theatre has been recast as an exploration of “wealth distribution” and “privilege” rather than a Russian melodrama.
