Laughing Out Lonely ****

Morten Grove Frandsen is thrilling in this espresso shot of a new Opera, part of the enormously successful #DANISH showcase. Drawn from posts by young people on social media, it is a surprisingly harrowing text that moves as Frandsen moves through the strangely backroom space constructed beautifully in Louise Beck's immersive, immediate production. 

The audience is sat on yellow crates in a dimly lit space. Frandsen among us, his singing is immediate and moving. It's difficult to draw pathos from the strange, explicit vernacular of teenagers posting late at night on the internet but Beck and Frandsen are genuinely innovative in their method here. They turn a phrase like 'I'm so lonely' into a sort of poem. If you giggle, it’s only for a moment, before you realise how earnestly this must have been thrown into the ether of the internet.

The lights are dim, like you're hidden under your bed at night. Frandsen moves slowly; it’s a thrill to see an opera actor so close up, to see how they must move on those broad stages such as the Festival Theatre. This is a production with the same visual panache, but a far more strikingly intimate setting. Frandsen throws teddy bears into the audience, he wears masks, he covers an unsuspecting member of the public in glitter. 

These are operatic gestures, but their effect is to create a small, desperately lonely atmosphere. This is closer to a Jane Schoenbrun film like We're All Going to the World's Fair than it is to The Marriage of Figaro. But it is always ambitious.

It must be said that the effect is elliptical. The language is really the last thing on anyone's mind. Some people might think it's too weird, too impenetrable. But this is a handsomely sung and beautifully conceptualised piece. Concept-first, impeccably executed productions such as this one. It would be wonderful to see it have further life.