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Scenes from a marriage: Jab @parktheatre

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Jab takes us back to five years ago when no theatres were open. Instead, it was staying at home watching endless television, clapping for the NHS, mask-wearing and hand washing. Against this backdrop, isolation from a married couple of 29 years slowly drives them apart and to the brink. But while it captures the period well, you want to know more about this couple on the edge. It's currently playing at Park Theatre after its premiere run at the Finborough Theatre last year.  James McDermott's play is loosely based on his parent's lives during the pandemic. It opens with Ann (Kacey Ainsworth) and Don (Liam Tobin) watching the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson inform the nation they need to stay at home. She is an NHS worker, and he runs a vintage shop. As she is an essential worker, she has work to do, but he is forced to stay at home while his shop is closed. There's also another source of tension in that Anne brings in all the income in the household. And so we watch ...

Opera: Tosca

Monday night I caught the new production of Tosca at Covent Garden. There are two casts so I did not see the now infamous (non)star turn by Angela Gheorghiu but a fantastic performance by Catherine Naglestad who could act and had the voice for such a dramatic role. I got the ticket as A decided to swap his tickets for tonight with Saturday's final performance with Gheorghiu (and thankfully ignoring the advice from the opera house staff that he already had tickets to the better performance).

The opera sinks or swims on the strength of the soloist in playing the title role. Thankfully Naglestad was a tiger and not a Romanian kitten. Perhaps she turned up to rehearsals so she knew what to do with the heavy dress she was burdened with for the second and third act. She also was never drowned out by the orchestra. These were things you would think you would take for granted when going to see something at Covent Garden, but apparently they were missing at Saturday evening's performance …

As for the opera itself, Tosca has everything I look for when I want opera – high drama and great music – and this new production looked great and sounded great.

The biggest applause was saved for Fabio Armiliato in the role of Cavaradossi – who stepped in to replace for the remaining season Nicola Rossi Giordiano, who has had to withdraw due to illness. The production finishes this week.

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