Propaganda – Lyric Theatre, Belfast

Joanna O’Hare and Matthew Cavan in Propaganda at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. Picture: Ciaran Bagnall

Propaganda continues at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast until 5 November 2022.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

Lenin defined “propaganda” as “the reasoned use of historical and scientific arguments to indoctrinate the educated and enlightened”. Belfast-based composer Conor Mitchell uses the term as the title for his new musical; the plot is set in Berlin 1948 during the 323 days of the infamous Soviet blockade.

Mitchell has rightfully earned the reputation of being an artistic activist, a political commentator, an “agent provocateur”, inclining towards an operatic medium to reflect current events. His last opera/musical, Abomination: a DUP Opera, pithily and pertinently focused on the misdemeanours of a local political party.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in recent months has contemporaneously highlighted the deployment of propaganda as a political tool. Mitchell, writing his own script, demonstrates the complexity of deciphering truth from untruth, fact from fake news.

His storyline may feature the doomed love affair between the two leading protagonists, but the audience could be easily distracted by a host of other relevant sub-plots. Stalinist Russia provided a wealth of dangerous environments for artists who did not comply with socialist realism, for so-called sexual deviants, for sycophantic bureaucrats seeking political advancement, for the ordinary citizens of occupied territories fearing violence.

All this and more offers Mitchell a multi-dimensional platform upon which to construct his score. The composer acknowledges his debt to his close friend and mentor Stephen Sondheim in his dedication of the score, but, like the plot, there are many influences discernible. Weill casts a spell on the overarching musical framework, Mendelssohn provides source material, even Wagner makes a fleeting appearance. The style is, however, overwhelmingly big band music from the 1940s, brash, confident, and sentimental. Mitchell’s melodies are beautiful at times and his harmonies are lush and deftly redolent of a bygone era.

The Lyric stage reinforces this multi-dimensionality approach, and Conor Murphy’s scaffolded set and starkly contrasted, coloured costume design allows for an imaginative use of layered space, characterfully featured by Mary Tumelty, the lighting designer.

The Belfast Ensemble, Mitchell’s own invention and conducted by Bob Broad, offers a confident and vibrant performance of the sophisticated score, a perfect aural backdrop and reliable foundation for the singers. Of those, Joanna O’Hare rises to her leading role as Hanna, while Matthew Cavan, a recent and unjust victim of real-life Twitter vilification, gives a powerful interpretation of the fearful Gerhardt Baumann. There’s not a weak link on stage and of the many ensemble songs demonstrating this this, ‘Moon over Moscow’ at the soaring climax of the work, led by Rebecca Caine as Magda, catches the full emotion, passion, energy of the entire musical.

Could Mitchell’s fertile expansion of the historical and artistic arguments used to “indoctrinate the educated and enlightened” of the past be overly complicated? Could there be deft cuts to the score? Could the populace warm to a less stark denouement?

Perhaps, but Mitchell’s musical will greatly enhance an in-depth exploration of “propaganda” for the rest of its run in Belfast.

Philip Hammond