VENUS & ADONIS
CLF Art Cafe, Peckham
Dec. 2019
a musical adaptation of Shakespeare's epic poem, Venus & Adonis with madrigals from Monteverdi's lost opera, Arianna
bold, absurd and energetic
Director
Musical Director
Producer
Lighting
Costume & Set
Assistant Director
Venus / Ness
Adonis / Aiden
Titan / Head Butcher
Graces / Ensemble
Sam Rayner
Frederick Waxman
Frances Livesey
Catja Hamilton
Nik Corrall
Talia Stern
Celia Learmonth
Hylton West
Charlie Merriman
Rosalind Dobson
Camilla Seale
Angus Bower-Brown
O, be advised! thou know'st not what it is
With javelin's point a churlish swine to gore,
Whose tushes never sheathed he whetteth still,
Like to a mortal butcher bent to kill.
Titan - Charlie Merriman
we're applying non-conventional techniques to the classical canon and seeing what happens
Classical Music Magazine
nuanced
moving
fast-paced
bleak
dexterous
intense
visceral
carnivalesque
audience reactions
'any adaptation of this poem is going to have to reckon with the dazzling and mysterious ways that Shakespeare used colour.
We found the more we allowed colours into our rehearsal process, the more they helped us access the sensuous, giddy pleasures of the poem'
Angus Bower-Brown - dramaturg and ensemble member
O, learn to love; the lesson is but plain,
And once made perfect, never lost again.
Venus - Celia Learmonth