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Post by theoracle on Sept 18, 2024 18:00:56 GMT
Sounding out the hidden depths of a human voice, this new show starring Academy Awards nominee Ruth Negga, creates a beautifully unsettling world where string instruments are played with swords.
A bullied teenager feels their voice breaking. Can it ever be fixed? In this coming-of-age tale about a young gay person seeking identity in an unkind world, musicians and their instruments become the storytellers.
Told through a transfixing fusion of words, live music and meticulous staging, Quiet Songs is both an unflinching portrait of adolescence and a moving reminder of what our voices reveal about our truest selves.
Finn Beames & Company is a changing group of collaborators making music-led work for live performance. Quiet Songs is their first production, as the winner of the 2024 Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award.
Very intrigued - Ruth Negga will be stunning. Very reasonably priced too
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Post by Dave B on Sept 19, 2024 6:54:15 GMT
Booked - thanks for posting! Had not seen anything about this, was really disappointed we never got Negga's Portia Coughlan. Cheap tickets in a small space will do nicely.
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239 posts
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Post by jaggy on Sept 19, 2024 10:50:15 GMT
Anyone been The Pit before? How small is it? Are there any good pics of what the auditorium is like?
Asking as the seats are unreserved.
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Post by Dave B on Sept 19, 2024 11:32:43 GMT
Anyone been The Pit before? How small is it? Are there any good pics of what the auditorium is like? Asking as the seats are unreserved. Yes. It's not all that small, at least 150 seats and fairly wide. No stage - just a large open floor at the very front.
100% suggest arriving early and joining a queue to get in for seat selection. We will be!
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Post by sherbetlemon on Oct 26, 2024 10:52:05 GMT
Saw this last night - wasn't completely sold out, but would recommend getting to The Pit at least 25 mins beforehand to get the best pick of the seats (wouldn't recommend 2nd row, as no rake).
Ruth Negga is absolutely bewitching in this (even with a few line flubs). It's almost a one-woman show type of performance, but there are 4 musicians on stage with her who participate with different instruments (both standard and makeshift).
The play begins in total darkness, with frequent recurrences of darkness/subdued light; which may annoy some, but helped me singularly focus on Negga's voice in these moments, of which she has total command. There are uses of swords as instrument, weapon, and metaphor for the danger and threat of words.
The monologue is really well-written, and she manages to mine everything out of it.
Overall, very much liked the show, but sometimes found it too abstract due to the music elements and their integration within the show. Maybe there's a better version of this show where the transitions between the music elements and the monologue are snappier. This sings when it focuses on the monologue and the truly terrific performance at its heart.
P.S. I may have found it more abstract than others, as I went in blind (didn't know the premise). I recommend reading the premise on the Barbican website beforehand!
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Post by drmaplewood on Oct 30, 2024 9:36:08 GMT
Was there last night, thanks for the tip on getting there early as the front row was a good place to be for this.
I was a bit disappointed with the scenes of darkness, given its short length some of it felt like an audiobook. That said, it was great to be in such close proximity to Ruth who is tremendous.
Also, weirdly, nobody was checking tickets upon entry.
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Post by Steve on Nov 2, 2024 18:58:48 GMT
This is very much in the experimental theatre mould, but worthwhile for it. I found the key is to focus on the monologue and not get too distracted by the sword-fighting, musical bow fighting, sword music, string music, masks, etc. Those things demonstrate and enhance the themes of the monologue, but the monologue is the core work I would argue. Ruth Negga is mesmerising as a boy who feels violence everywhere around him. Some spoilers follow. . . In the monologue, Ruth Negga's boy goes to a school where two Roman swords were once found, so all the kids blazers have the two swords insignia, and our closeted gay hero feels the violence of those swords all around him. . . The show seems to be about transitioning, about one thing becoming something else, so the swords make music, the violin bows become fighting weapons, and we hear how planes became weapons when the twin towers fell, upon which violent fantasies of the other kids infest the school, threatening our morose hero, who himself always seems to imagine himself transitioning into something else, to escape his violent world. Anyhow, we see and hear violence become music, and music violence, as we listen to the monologue expound on these themes in an alienated context. Negga is terrific as a kind of alienated Holden Caulfield, her big eyes and deep voice wryly describing a hellish and lonely internal life, occasionally humorously mimicking her raspy Mrs. Trunchbull type of teacher, who venerates the Roman swords above all. There is no drama here, it's a mood piece par excellence, where the sword music, which sounds like the squeal of dolphins melds with the monologue to convey a Winston Smith type of existential vibe where all life is hiding from violence and yearning for change. 4 stars from me.  |
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