After Violence (2018)

Live performance for the Dulwich Picture Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts, and National Trust

In 2018, I created a new music theatre work based on lute songs by the Renaissance composer John Dowland and inspired by the paintings of Jusepe de Ribera. Re-composed, augmented, and arranged for lute, analogue synthesisers, vocalist, and drag queen/narrator, After Violence used its historical source material to examine contemporary ideas of masculinity, particularly as experienced by members of the LGBTQI+ community.

The project was initially commissioned by the Dulwich Picture Gallery in response to their exhibition of Ribera - paintings of extraordinary power and violence. Produced by Classical Remix (of which I am artistic director), we ran a number of workshops with LGBTQI+ identifying artists and performers to develop the work’s themes. We then developed the work in rehearsals with Ella Taylor (soprano), Sam Brown (lutenist) and Rhys Hollis aka Rhys’ Pieces (drag queen). The work was premiered at The National Trust’s Sutton House (a 15th Century house in Hackney), before being presented at the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts.

You can read more about the project on the Classical Remix website, here. With thanks to the Dulwich Picture Gallery, National Trust, Royal Academy of Arts, and Arts Council England.