15-05-2025
Trial by Jury/A Matter of Misconduct review — modern farce meets G&S
New operas are rare enough, new operettas rarer still. So Scottish Opera deserves credit not only for putting operetta at the centre of its summer season, but also for commissioning one to sit alongside a classic of the genre. A Matter of Misconduct, at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, is set in the Downing Street press room, and centres on a hapless politician in a party leadership election. Where on earth could it have found its inspiration?
Emma Jenkins's libretto channels Armando Iannucci's The Thick of It in its unflinching exposé of political error and human frailty. It even has a foul-mouthed Scot as a spin doctor, played gamely by Jamie MacDougall. Jenkins's language zings along — you have to take your hat off
