Noye's Fludde review: East End kids make Britten great again

In the 1950s, director Joan Littlewood made Stratford’s Theatre Royal a home for political theatre that engaged the local community. Meanwhile, up in Suffolk, Benjamin Britten, not exactly a kindred spirit, shared Littlewood’s social ambition, actively seeking opportunities to compose for amateurs alongside professionals. For him, music should “be useful, and to the living”.

His most successful pro-am work, the opera Noye’s Fludde (premiered in a Suffolk church in 1958) has now arrived in Stratford. Lyndsey Turner’s energetic production is a collaboration between the theatre and English National Opera, members of whose orchestra play alongside a small army of young locals. The whole ensemble, conducted by Martin Fitzpatrick, is somewhat detached on a raised platform at the back of the stage, but important orchestral details make their way through.

On the stage itself, dozens of garrulous schoolchildren throw themselves at their task: to incarnate a lurid bestiary of animals seeking sanctuary on Noah’s ark. Marcus Farnsworth’s Noah and Louise Callinan’s Mrs Noah are careful not to over-sing, while God is a woman, sonorously spoken by Suzanne Bertish. Soutra Gilmour’s designs and Luke Hall’s video images create an agreeably homemade atmosphere, and there’s a brief but enchanting ballet, choreographed by Wayne McGregor, for the Raven and the Dove. The audience is invited to sing along in three hymns, but there is no whiff of piety; even the hints at ecological parable are subtle, not blatant.

Until Saturday (020 8534 0310, stratfordeast.com)