A year of grief and courage
From first light to gathering dusk, a ravishing installation takes over Brighton Theatre Royal for the Brighton Festival, acknowledging a year of collective grief and courage in which so many have felt their lives slipping into the shadows.
The live element on Saturday, May 22 sold out within hours – and will be attended by 250 people on the day in socially-distanced groups of 25. But the wider public can still enjoy the build-up to it online. A series of 15 short graphic films featuring some of its sounds and words will be available on the Brighton Festival website from Saturday, May 8 to Saturday, May 22. The same link will also give you access to 15 specially commissioned poems, all by Brighton writers, that reflect on the themes of the piece.
Inspired by the liturgy of Tenebrae — the church ritual in which lights are gradually extinguished and the building recedes into darkness — a team of artists will fill the theatre with sound and light, inviting the groups present to experience a haunting descent into blackness.
Tenebrae: Lessons Learnt in Darkness is a Brighton Festival commission created by Miriam Allan (singer), Neil Bartlett (creator and director), Paule Constable (creator and lighting designer), Isabelle Haile (soprano), Rosaleigh Harvey-Otway (film-maker and digital producer), Reiko Ichise (viola da gamba), Joseph McHardy (musical director), Akila Richards (community writing cocurator) and Christopher Shutt (creator and sound designer).
Fifteen writers have also contributed.