Mapping together 3 stunning elements for an extraordinary experience
The creative team behind the immersive re-imagining of The Stars and Their Consolations spent two days at Ffwrnes Theatre earlier this month playing creatively with ancient stories, beautiful projected animations of the night sky, lighting and Sarah Lianne Lewis’s spine-tingling electro acoustic soundscape, complementing the poetry and depth of Daniel Morden and Hugh Lupton’s award winning storytelling.
Our shared aspiration is to create a really exciting and accessible way to experience and enjoy these Greek myths, stories that have been shared around fires and in performance spaces for thousands of years.
At the end of two days of experimenting, we invited a few choice audience members in to reflect on the journey so far. They told us the whole experience made them feel really relaxed and calm, fully immersed, and inspired. This was a joyful surprise! Given some of the more macabre elements of the stories, we were thrilled to hear that the piece truly offered consolation – so much needed in these challenging times! Bringing a cosmic eternal perspective to human troubles through the epic sweep of the night sky, we were delighted to feel their encouragement in feedback such as:
“I was thoroughly entranced by the work and found it both interesting and inspiring.”
“I found the performance really intriguing and have been thinking about the myths featured since!… I found myself absorbed by the performance and the storytelling style.”
“It drew me in right from the beginning, I was completely enthralled.”
“It made me want to find out more about the myths behind the stories, I’ll be looking them up later!”
A huge thank you goes out to Theatrau Sir Gâr for hosting this R&D process and public sharing and to Arts Council of Wales for supporting this process of discovery. We’re looking forward to the opportunity of bringing this outstanding piece of storytelling to more audiences in 2023.
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Creative Team: Storytellers Hugh Lupton & Daniel Morden, Composer – Sarah Lianne Lewis, Director – Paula Crutchlow, Digital Projection Advisor – Mauri Martin (CULTVR), Lighting Designer – Cara Hood, Technical Manager – Gethin Stacey, Producer – Naomi Wilds, Production Manager – Nia Thomson.
The Stars and their Consolations was originally commissioned by Beyond the Border Wales International Storytelling Festival and this R&D process has been funded by Arts Council Wales, Tŷ Cerdd and Adverse Camber with support from Theatrau Sir Gâr.
Photographs by Simon Gough