music by Judith Weir
direction. Madeleine Kludje
texts. Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison and Clarissa Pinkola Estes
set and costume designer.
woman.life.song was originally commissioned by Jessye Norman andcharts the stages of womanhood through youth, mid-life and maturity.
A wooden circular stage with its green grasses and flowers is reimagined as a garden whilst the ensemble are characterised as ancestors and dressed as gardeners tending to, empowering and mourning at each life transition.
The flowers were plucked and removed through the show leaving just the tall grasses, in order to mark the shift from blossoming youth to the wilderness of older age.
Audiences seated in the round, witnessed the intimate 45min song cycle within the nave of St Martins’s in the Bullring church, Birmingham.
Conductor. Alpesh Chauhan OBE | Movement director. Gabrielle Nimo | Chorus director. Mariana Rosas | Chorus director. Themba Mvula | Choral arrangement. Allyson Devenish and Gweneth Ann Rand | Lighting. Joshua Gadsby | Costume supervisor. Hannah Marshall
Assistant director & Associate movement director. Keiren Hamilton-Amos | Assistant conductor. Rosina Flueckiger
Design assistant. Sireen Martin
Images 2 and 4. Kate Green
