Is hell full of greedy, slothful, lusty, arrogant bastards or middle-class Americans? The Marxist writer Bertolt Brecht was damned sure he knew the answer to that when he penned the libretto for The Seven Deadly Sins, a new sung-ballet for his composer friend Kurt Weill, in 1933.
With its split-personality heroine - she's played by a singer and a dancer - the ballet about a poor girl's struggle to survive in capitalist America has so far defied successful staging despite its magnetic attractions. But the singer Martha Wainwright is the star attraction of the Royal Ballet's new production by Will Tuckett, and with brilliant designer Lez Brotherston on board, and the beauteous ballerina Zen Yanowsky as Wainwright's alter ego, it has much going for it.
Though Brecht must presumably be turning in his grave at the prospect.
Royal Ballet, The Seven Deadly Sins, April 26 - May 9.
Ismene Brown
FIRST POSTED APRIL 27, 2007
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