Punchdrunk & ENO Collaborate on Office Duchess
The forthcoming Punchdrunk/English National Opera collaboration on The Duchess of Malfi will mark firsts for each company – the first time ENO has ventured into the world of ‘immersive’ theatre, and the first time Punchdrunk have tackled an opera.
The production will take place over three floors of an office space on Great Eastern Quay in London’s Royal Albert Basin. With music by German composer Torsten Rasch, direction by Punchdrunk’s Felix Barrett and featuring the ENO Orchestra (conducted by Stephen Higgins) and a cast of 17 performers, it’s an huge undertaking that will mark Punchdrunk’s most ambitious site-specific production to date.
The musicians, actors and an audience of up to 400 will be scattered throughout the building as John Webster’s tragic story of a Duchess who marries beneath her unfolds.
Running for only 13 performances from 13 July 2010, The Duchess of Malfi is part of CREATE 10, the second year of a new major annual summer festival running across the five Olympic boroughs of Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.
