Track Works (Mortuary Station) ★★★1/2

Devised by Thomas De Angelis and Clemence Williams. Featuring music by Carl Orff, Dvorak, Verdi, Gounod, Rossini, Puccini and Bizet. Mortuary Station. 21 Nov – 19 Dec, 2023.

Chances are you’ve driven, or caught a train past, Mortuary Station. You’ve probably caught a flash of the architecture as you sped past or maybe you’ve seen photoshoots for brands, or just someone’s wedding, staged there. Well now you can hear some classic arie while gazing at the stonework in a new, site-specific show called Track Works.

Waiting for their train, a motley group of commuters find themselves stuck together. A young lawyer with a satchel full of paperwork, two schoolgirls up to mischief, a straggler and the station master, navigate their way around each other. But their behaviours collide as they wait and wait. 

Playwright Thomas De Angelis and director Clemence Williams have made an amusing and eminently pleasant evening’s entertainment with Track Works. Adapting a range of recognisable operatic classics from Carmen, The Marriage of Figaro, La Traviata, La Boheme, Madame Butterfly etc to a very modern situation. As fun and beautifully sung as the music is, the brisk 45 min show is held together by the amusing and entrancing antics of the performers on stage. 

As the two schoolgirls start to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting public, the comedy mixes with the music and action together. The platform itself makes for a well resourced stage, with multiple entrances and rooms the cast can duck into at the side, while the benches on the platform serve multiple purposes. The stunning sandstone architecture is as good a set as you could imagine (the show would feel less romantic were it staged in the middle of Town Hall Station).

The young cast get to stretch their talents up close. Lily Harper (Cendrillon, Madama Butterfly), Eden Shifroni (La Bohème), Sophie Mohler (L’incorinazione di Poppea), Anastasia Gall (Die  uberflöte) and Michael Kaufmann (The Coronation of Poppea) make the most of their characters and work the comedy as much as their vocals. 

It’s a lovely way to spend an hour in the middle of the city. Grab a bite in Spice Alley or The Old Clare Hotel nearby before or after, and then sit back and enjoy the show.