[Chantelle (Primavera)]

The Boatswain's Mate at the Finborough Theatre
After successful productions of Passion (Scotsman Critic's Choice, Edinburgh Festival 2006) and Into the Woods (Oxford Playhouse, February 2006) Primavera is producing the first professional performance for fifty years of Ethel Smyth's sparkling opera at the Finborough Theatre

'The Boatswain's Mate' is a comic opera by Dame Ethel Smyth - suffragette, friend of Emmeline Pankhurst, and widely regarded as the first female opera composer. It's being performed for five nights at 8pm on 17th June; 18th June; 24th June; 1st July; and 2nd July at the acclaimed Finborough Theatre near Earl's Court, London.

Mrs Waters is a wealthy widow whose first husband has left her with a country pub and a determination never to remarry. When the retired boatswain Harry Benn devises a scheme to win her hand by 'saving' her from a burglar whom he has in fact paid to break in, he reckons without her bravery and quick-wittedness…

Talented young British soprano Sian Jones (Carl Rosa Opera principal, Musetta in La Boheme at Dartington Festival, Pamina in Magic Flute for Surrey Opera) is joined by tenor Walter Van Dyk (Pacific Overtures at Leicester Haymarket, principal at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse), Anthony Flaum (finalist in Radio 2 Voice of Musical Theatre Competition 2006, lead tenor in Lord of the Dance) and Andrew McDonald (recently seen in The Entertainer at the Old Vic, National Theatre).

Director Tom Littler is currently Assistant Director to James Conway on Eugene Onegin (English Touring Opera), Alan Strachan on The Letter (Wyndham's), Laurence Boswell on Treats (Garrick), and Sir Peter Hall on Little Nell (Theatre Royal Bath). He has directed over twenty productions including Sondheim's Passion (Edinburgh Festival 2006 – The Scotsman Critics' Choice), Into the Woods (Oxford Playhouse) and Primavera's Forgotten Classics series at the King's Head.

Box Office 0870 4000 838
Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk

Tickets £11 / £9 concessions

Finborough Theatre, The Finborough, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED