from the Truth Society to neurotic erotica
aShortConcertofNeuroticSongs is the crystallisation of my thirty years of research within the Roy Hart theatre and its emphasis on the voice and “singing” in theatre, and my own particular obsession with the synthesis between the structured beauty of music and the emotional engagement of acting - words and music. A synthesis of opposites.
Very few have come close to achieving this synthesis:- Callas, Jaques Brel, Piaf...? It is the very difficulty of it which prompts me, because when I am pressed by impossible difficulty from both sides then there is no mind or energy left for ego. I am persuaded that we have to trick ourselves into moments of genuine presence on stage, we must put ourselves at risk: it is only in the moment that we stumble that we react without premeditation - no matter how many times we have rehearsed that very gesture. Theatre is entertainment, but it is in these moments of presence that it becomes holy.
Every song, no matter how banal, is an opera, but as usual with opera, the music is so powerful and the words so difficult to hear that we don’t pay much attention to the story. I have chosen songs that are not banal at all, songs full of poetry and strong personal meaning for their authors, and for me. Out of each song I aim to make a small opera, complete in itself and new every time, and out of all of them together make a play that is a genuine projection of my psyche, and of our time.