FIVE people crammed into a tiny kitchen of a Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, fast food restaurant, The Golden Dragon, may not seem like the most common place for an opera.

But this is the focal point of the show brought to the Anvil on Thursday night (October 12) by Music Theatre Wales.

What starts out as a jovial play on the restaurant environment, but it soon becomes apparent that Hungarian composer-conductor Peter Eötvös’ work takes a darker turn.

The show opens with ‘The Little One’ (Llio Evans) writhing around in pain complaining of toothache. The problem is that he is an immigrant, so cannot go to a dentist as he does not have any identity papers. So his fellow kitchen staff try to think of different ways to help him with the pain.

The first act is full of dark comedy, mostly brought to life by Andrew Mackenzie Wicks’ ‘Grandfather’ and ‘Cricket’ characters, but as the story digs deeper, it is clear that The Golden Dragon is a tale of difficult circumstances that immigrants in any country have to deal with.

As with the action, the accompanying music, which is brought to life by conductor Geoffrey Paterson, starts with a lighter touch. When the narrative splinters off, which it frequently does as there are four storylines running parallel, the music changes to suit the situation.

With the cast taking on multiple roles each, they do a great job of signposting the audience which character they are portraying at every specific moment in time.

Vocally, the voices may not be the strongest. In parts when more than one performer is singing, they can appear a little drowned out by another, stronger, voice. But the narrative flows and comes full circle to a conclusion which leads to ‘The Little One’s’ death, all because of a little toothache.