Jarvis Cocker to compose music for Manchester Royal Exchange's new season
He’s a musician, actor, broadcaster, writer and director. Now Jarvis Cocker can add composer to his CV. The Sheffield polymath will write original music for a production of Light Falls by Simon Stephens for Manchester Royal Exchange’s newly announced autumn/ winter season.
Stephens told the Guardian that he had long admired Cocker as a writer and artist, and said that he was the only songwriter with the “generosity and imagination” to write what he conceived of as Light Falls’ “Hymn of the North”. The pair discussed the “darkness and defiance of hymns, their simplicity and complexity alike”.
Stephens continued: “We wanted a secular song for the 21st century. He has written a piece of typical wit and compassion: formally and lyrically it counterpoints and refracts the ideas that I was reaching for in writing the play. In his generosity and openness he is a beautiful collaborator. He was born for the theatre!”
The Royal Exchange’s artistic director Sarah Frankcom will direct the show as her final production before vacating the role for a new post as director of drama school Lamda. Her replacement has not been announced.
The Royal Exchange’s forthcoming season, which puts “outstanding female actors, directors and theatre makers centre stage”, according to a release,will also feature a production of Macbeth directed by Christopher Haydon and starring Lucy Ellinson as Macbeth and Ony Uhiara as Lady Macbeth.
Another production, 24 Hours of Peace by Neil Bartlett, is described as a “marathon artwork”. Starting at 11am on Remembrance Sunday (10 November) and running for 24 hours, it will feature the words and voices of 100 “contemporary peace workers” to be performed by a 48-person relay team of professional actors alongside members of the public.
Bartlett travelled across the UK for six months to collect the interviews for the piece. Performers lined up for the event include Toby Jones, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Miranda Richardson, Adjoa Andoh, Liz Carr and Don Warrington. The work will be broadcast live on Resonance FM.
• This article previously appended a description from a previous Royal Exchange season to the theatre’s new season of works. This has been amended.