Cloudy chills

Raymond Deane's new full-length chamber opera, The Wall of Cloud, opened at the Backstage Theatre in Longford on Wednesday. The plot, adapted by the composer from a Yuan Dynasty Chinese play, tells of love thwarted and fulfilled.

The Mother (none of the characters is ever named) insists on the Youth travelling to the city and getting a good government job before she will allow his arranged marriage to her Daughter. The Daughter pines. But her Spirit decides to present herself to the Youth, who his persuaded to break his agreement with mother and marry sooner rather than later. The years pass and Daughter's condition declines. When the now successful Youth and his Spirit wife finally return, Daughter is close to death. The angry Mother and perplexed Youth finally understand what has happened, as Daughter and Spirit merge.

Director Jason Byrne and designer Johanna Connor present the work with a static greyness that's not mitigated by the use of projected silhouettes (the one of the deceased husband almost came to be a standing joke). Their approach may be intended to reflect the remoteness of Deane's character handling (if this were a movie, it would be a series of face-to-camera monologues), but the effect is to place the proceedings on stage on the wrong side of a strangely opaque lens, the wall of cloud, perhaps.

Deane has striven to work up quite a range of effects from his small instrumental ensemble. On a first hearing, these mostly seemed to lead a life independent of word and action. The distant chill of the evening diminished in the Third Act, when Daughter, in the work's first touching moment, reflects, "There is nothing more bitter than parting". But that is far too late a stage in the evening to begin the process of engagement.

The Wall of Cloud tours to Dublin (Samuel Beckett Centre, Oct 15th and 16th), Belfast (Oct 18th), Kilkenny (Oct 21st) and Wexford Festival (Oct 23rd).