Kali­fa Clyne

Laugh­ter and jokes aren't ex­act­ly the type of sounds one would ex­pect from a tragedy, but the scene was one of easy ca­ma­raderie, fun and light­heart­ed­ness as the cast of the opera Les Mis­er­ables–staged by the Mar­i­onettes Chorale this week­end–did a full re­hearsal last Sun­day.

The re­hearsal took place at coun­try club in Mar­aval, where, out of cos­tume but still in char­ac­ter, the cast of Les Mis, were shot by sol­diers and felt bro­ken hearts. Di­rec­tor Car­o­line Tay­lor danced in and out of scenes as she gave the play­ers a crit­i­cal eye.

The opera was staged last year, and af­ter many re­quests for it to be restaged, the Mar­i­onettes are do­ing it again. There are few changes to what peo­ple have de­scribed as a mar­vel­lous cast. On­ly one cast mem­ber, Mar­lon De Bique, who played Jean Val­jean along­side Nigel Floyd will be ab­sent.

Floyd keeps the role for three nights from May 22 to 24.

The play is about re­bel­lion, rev­o­lu­tion, sin and pol­i­tics, in­ter­twined with strong sen­ti­ments of hope and love.

The ini­tial run of Les Mis last year fea­tured su­perb per­for­mances from young Elise Blanc as Gavroche, Can­dice Al­can­tara as Fan­tine and Mar­vin Smith as the com­plex yet hat­ed In­spec­tor Javert.

The cast seemed to have fun as they re­hearsed lines but al­so stayed in char­ac­ter ex­cept for a few laugh­ing mo­ments.

Mu­si­cal di­rec­tor Gre­ta Tay­lor com­mand­ed the mu­si­cians as though they were live on stage in front of an au­di­ence, nev­er miss­ing a beat or a dra­mat­ic pause.

Les Mis will run for one week­end, this week­end at Queen's Hall.