The Scale of Power musical debuts with an entertaining performance at the Union Theatre, with shows at Camden Fringe in August.
Before the performance of The Scale of Power at the Union Theatre, Director Elisabeth Tu explained this was still a “work in progress”, adding that everyone could “just imagine we have the budget of the National Theatre”. She explained the two-day run was the first time the script and actors had come together, encouraging all the audience to give feedback before the second run at the Camden Fringe.
As works in progress go, this was a very good one.
The Scale of Power is a musical set in a dystopian city where pitch is power. Vocal frequencies determine your social status, with high notes buying privilege and low ones barely getting you coffee-flavoured water.
The story follows Aiden (played by Lorenzo Sartori), a warm baritone from the slums, and Lyra (Mo Crook), a mezzo-soprano passing as an elite soprano. As they try to compete to earn their place in the soprano high society, or stay in it.
They are accompanied by a small cast of supporting actors, including Aiden’s very humorous best friend Elias (Guzhu Qiwen), the arbiter of the competition known only as The Auditor (Junhong Lyu), and the show-stopping Serena (Abbie Cawood), whose support for the dystopian society as an elite soprano is only matched by her amazing voice. Rounding off the cast is Jiaxin Zheng as The Broker and Wei Yuan as Cathy.
By shifting back and forth between their own roles and various functional parts, the ensemble helps keep the one-hour storyline clear and logically connected. As an ensemble-driven piece, their physical performance, movement, and musical numbers also bring a rich variety of artistic expression to the stage. Beyond the cast, the production and technical team—does a brilliant job of actually helping tell the story more smoothly and making the logic click.
It opens with a powerful song laying out the world the musical inhabits. This song and the round of applause it receives set the tone for the rest of the musical. Upon the end of The Scale of Power, there were several comments about how good it was from amongst the applause.
Speaking after the performance at the intimate Union Theatre, tucked under railway arches in Southwark, Producer Jiaxin Bernice Zheng explained she’d had the concept from last Christmas, but had only decided to do a show in April.
“We’re self-funded, so it’s been a hard process,” she explained. Adding, “This is perhaps the only about the anout fifth time we had everyone together.”
Director Elisebeth Tu echoed the hard work that went into making the musical work. She said, “We did quite a lot of work. Normally you have a lot of development process, but ours was very condensed. Everyone was very professional about taking the script and making it work.” She praised the “outstanding” cast, saying that “all the characters you saw today were ones they developed. It’s nice seeing how all those building blocks come to life.”
She added that the musical “deserves” to continue to be developed, beyond the second run which will take place from August 20th – 22nd at Rosemary Branch Theatre as part of the Camden Fringe.
Adding some final thoughts, she said, “From our very first conversations, we wanted it to be entertaining. While we wanted it to have a commentary on the musical world, we still wanted to entertain.” Judging by the applause and laughter during the performance, they certainly did.
If you like this article, why not read: Nezha Musical Superbly Brings Chinese Mythology to a London Stage
