Music: Benjamin Britten
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Revival Director: Karolina Sofulak/Tim Claydon
Conductor: Garry Walker
Peter Grimes is the town misfit, a bit of a loner, mostly out on his boat or holed up in his fisherman’s hut on the edge of town. He doesn’t have many friends, although widowed school mistress Ellen has a bit of a thing for him. When his young apprentice dies at sea, suspicion arises through town gossip, and when he takes on a new apprentice, a boy from the work house, who subsequently goes missing, the townsfolk quickly turn into an ugly mob. The first production of Peter Grimes premiered in 1945, a time when its message, loaded with themes of scapegoating and societal cruelty would have resonated. In 2026 the opera’s spotlight on group think, misinformation and petty small town rumour is still horribly prescient.
The opera is set in East Suffolk, but Opera North’s production could be any small coastal town in Britain. People are scraping a living, legally or illegally, and there’s little to do for entertainment. The professionals run the town – the Doctor, the Lawyer, the clergy, and religion casts a rather dark shadow over everything. Anthony Ward’s design sets a bleak and atmospheric scene, creating a dark, harsh place, battered by the sea and the wind. Costumes have a 1970’s or 80’s feel but are also strangely timeless. Everyone looks grubby and downtrodden.
The emotional punch of this bleak and beautiful opera comes from the hopelessness, not only of Peter’s eventual fate, but embedded in everything. Ellen and Peter yearn for each other but in a passionless and futile way. The apprentices are boys from the work house and there’s a sense that things are unlikely to ever get better for them. The local tavern, The Boar, is a seedy drinking den where all vices can be satisfied.
So there’s really nothing uplifting about Peter Grimes, and yet Opera North’s production leaves you spiritually and culturally enriched. It’s a big, punchy production that makes great use of a large company, the Lowry’s big stage, and some great soloists. Philippa Boyle is reserved and level-headed as Ellen, Stuart Jackson has a great presence as Bob Boles. Nazan Fikret and Ava Dodd play the ‘neices’, the main attraction at The Boar, who bring some colour and sass to the proceedings, and a nod to Toby Dray as John, the apprentice boy. the whole thing is headed up by the excellent John Findon as Peter. Aside from his exquisite voice, Findon’s physical presence and movement is both powerful and reserved. He’s the archetypal gentle giant, with echoes of Steinbeck’s Lenny Small. Things happen around him that are out of his control, and he ultimately pays through no fault of his own.
You can’t go wrong with Britten’s haunting music, but it’s the starkly beautiful direction (originally by Phyllida Lloyd and revived by Karolina Sofulak and Tim Claydon) that gives this production the edge. The scenes of mob violence are genuinely terrifying, choreography that creates the movement of the sea or the devastation of a storm is beautifully directed and delivered, and as heart-breaking as it is, you can’t look away from the desolate image of Grimes holding up the dead child. This production wrings everything out of this glorious opera, and leaves an indelible mark.
Reviewed on 13 March 2026
