Benjamin Britten’s one-act opera based on the Bible story of Noah takes Stratford East by storm

“It’s a logistical nightmare. I’d compare it to the Olympic opening ceremony in terms of crowd control, body management and trying to bring so many different elements together – it’s genuinely nail-biting.”

This is Nadia Fall, newly appointed artistic director of the Theatre Royal Stratford East, talking about the new production, in collaboration with the ENO, of Benjamin Britten’s masterpiece Noye’s Fludde. It opened at the theatre this week: 100 singers, dancers, instrumentalists, children, students, adults, amateurs and professionals doing something that has never been done in this venue, or indeed this community, before. An opera.

It all started when Fall, then associate director at the National Theatre, was working on Alan Bennett’s The Habit of Art – a play that stages a fictional meeting between poet W.H. Auden and composer Benjamin Britten. Fall found herself listening to Britten’s music and particularly his one-act opera Noye’s Fludde – a retelling of the biblical story of Noah’s Ark, based on the Chester Mysery Plays. It was a piece that stayed with her, and when conversations started with English National Opera about a potential co-production, Noye was top of her list.