The Expected

Rough Fiction in association with London Arts Orchestra present

THE EXPECTED

First performed at Wilton’s Music Hall, Monday 16th January 2018, 7.45pm

Variations on Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht

Based on the poem by Richard Dehmel

DIRECTION AND CHOREOGRAPHY | SIMON PITTMAN

CONDUCTOR AND COMPOSER | EDWARD FARMER

TEXT | HELEN MILLAR & SIMON PITTMAN

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR & DRAMATURG | HELEN MILLAR

LIGHTING DESIGNER | DAN SAGGARS

DEVISED BY THE COMPANY

A 100-year love story, 100-years after Woman’s Suffrage, told through a blend of dance-theatre and live music.  

Two lovers meet in a moonlit forest, one carrying a dark secret that threatens to tear them apart. Can confession lead to acceptance? 

Music and movement  combine in this re-imagining of Schoenberg’s romantic string sextet Verklärte Nacht. Today, 100-years after Women’s Suffrage, the dramatic love story at the heart of The Expected interrogates society’s shifting relationship to gender, equality, and parenthood.

Told through a blend of dance-theatre and live music, performers and musicians interact on stage in intimate duets and ensemble movement.

The two lovers are portrayed by Christopher Akrill (Co-Artistic Director of HeadSpaceDance, Sadlers Wells, Royal Opera House) and Sonya Cullingford (Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House, Punchdrunk).

‘A sense of imaginative possibility that is impossible not to embrace. Uniformly excellent, Rough Fiction push the boundaries between movement and the spoken word’ (What’s On Stage)

‘An orchestra of fine musicians… Edward Farmer conducts with a discriminating ear for orchestral sonority and pace’ (Evening Standard)

Kindly supported by Cockayne Grants for the Arts and London Community Foundation, and ETT Forge.

MORE

Watch our collaborator Edward Farmer (London Arts Orchestra) in his TED Talk about helping people to engage with classical music through story and context:

https://youtu.be/PVKQlPy9ahQ

London Arts Orchestra (LAO) brings music to life through storytelling, creating imaginative concert experiences for newcomers to classical music. The orchestra has also become a home for a wide range of young European musicians in London. LAO was founded in 2009 and is a registered UK charity with the aim of making orchestral music more accessible to wider audience.

  • “An orchestra of fine musicians” – Barry Millington, London Evening Standard
  • “If only some of our bigger national Orchestra’s were as innovative” Seen and Heard International, Jim Pritchard
  • “An intoxicating combination of arts, visuals, music, and storytelling” Huffington Post

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