Budget cuts may have compelled English National Opera to rely more heavily on revivals this season, but a fresh outing for Danish composer Poul Ruders’s operatic version of The Handmaid’s Tale is no bad thing. With women’s rights under pressure worldwide, Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel has lost none of its relevance or ability to chill.
Set in an America hijacked by a right-wing, patriarchal theocracy, the falling birthrate has forced elite males and their infertile wives to rely on “handmaids” – women with a proven ability to conceive – to produce their children. Offred – literally a woman “owned” by Fred –was caught escaping across the Canadian border and sent to a Red Centre, a facility run by older women known as Aunts. Assigned to the Commander, a high-level politico, and his wife Serena Joy, she is drawn bit by bit into a mysterious network of conspiracies.
Though it shies away from some of the brutality of the book, ENO artistic director Annilese Miskimmon’s staging is a model of clarity, giving singers room to explore Atwood’s sharply drawn characters. Annemarie Woods’s uncluttered sets and Paule Constable’s detailed lighting do the rest.
Ruders’s faithful, if slightly overlong, realisation revels in a sumptuous atonality with hymn tunes, minimalist licks and jazz riffs offering melodic relief. Joana Carneiro guides the ENO Orchestra carefully through its multifaceted complexities, with many of the cast returning from the production’s 2022 premiere.
American mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey reprises her visceral performance as Offred, her silvery tone complemented by pinpoint diction. Nadine Benjamin stands out as the rebellious Moira alongside Eleanor Dennis as Offred’s feisty fellow handmaid Ofglen. The women of the ENO Chorus are on blistering form.
As the infertile Serena Joy, Avery Amereau captures the character’s conflicted sense of shame and desperation with strong support from James Creswell as the inscrutable Commander. Rachel Nicholls performs stratospheric miracles as the vicious Aunt Lydia, while Juliet Stevenson is luxury casting as the academic who leads the symposium framing the action.
Its standing in popular culture means The Handmaid’s Tale is able to attract audiences beyond the regular opera crowd. ENO deserves full credit for bringing it back.
At the London Coliseum until 15 February
