An Irish mother grieves when the men in her life keep drowning off the coast of the Aran Islands. Ralph Vaughan Williams’ one-act opera, based on the play by John Millington Synge, runs about forty minutes. Julie Rumbold plays mother Maurya, while Rachel Hanauer and Kate Norigian play the daughters. Directed by Hanauer, this somber curio is paired with Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel, a song cycle with poems by Robert Lewis Stevenson. It’s an odd pick for Valentine’s Day, but so goes Contemporary Theatre Company’s Springboard Season: affordable, one-off Friday night performances ranging from serious opera and a Sondheim birthday celebration to Dungeons and Dragons themed improv and something called Gay Seinfeld.
Riders to the Sea
