Songs from a Golden Age

Saturday 7th October

  • Time: 8:00 pm. PLAY: Songs from a Golden Age. (Canciones del Siglo de Oro) AURIC

Cast: Paula Rodríguez & Arthur Astier

Suitable for 9+

Running Time: 60 minutes, no interval (Bilingual performance: Spanish-English) 

No interval

Venue: Bush Theatre, Alen-Buckley Script Library, 7 Uxbridge Rd, W12 8LJ, London 

Synopsis:

Navigating innovative approaches when bringing Spanish Golden Age classical theatre to international audiences is one of the greatest challenges for contemporary directors.
 
In creating Songs from the Spanish Golden Age I was inspired by fragments of plays and poetry by famous authors like Calderón de la Barca, Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega.

The adapted and reinvented texts are accompanied by experimental music by the French composer Arthur Astier. 

This poetic concert delves into the essence of the classics in order to bring to light universal questions about the search for identity and the need for freedom. It is an intimate dialogue between the past and the present in an ambience pervaded by melodies and verse, which allow us to listen to these stories again to enjoy them and reflect upon them. The project plays with bilingualism (between Castilian and English) in homage to multiple points of reference within the international music scene and the origin of this artistic collaboration; our duo – Auric – is based in London.

I believe passionately in the power of words. The way in which these stories were written transports us collectively with a unique force, transforming us, and reaching the core of our understanding and emotions.

In Songs from the Spanish Golden Age, music envelops the poetry, taking us to a transcendental plane.

BIOGRAPHIES

Paula Rodríguez is an award-winning Spanish actress and director based in London and working internationally. She trained at RESAD, Madrid and RCSSD, London. Paula is also a translator, writer, and producer. As an artist, she is interested in re-visiting Spanish classics for modern anglophone audiences, by collaborating with diverse artists from multidisciplinary backgrounds. She is the cofounder of Teatro Inverso: their two shows ROSAURA and WONDERS have toured the USA, Latin America, and Europe since 2015. She has worked at the Bridge Theatre, the Young Vic, Orange Tree Theatre, the Cervantes Theatre, Chichester Festival (UK), Corral de Comedias Al- calá de Henares, Almagro International Classical Theatre Festival, Teatro de la Abadía, Ilure Teatre (Spain), Golden Age Festival of Ciudad Juárez (México), Teatro di Bo’ Santa Maria A Monte (Italy), Nuevo Siglo Drama Festival Chamizal, Heart of America Festival (USA), Gavleborg Folkteatern (Sweden), Shakespeare Festival Neuss (Germany), and Craiova International Festival (Romania), among others.

Arthur Astier is a French composer and musician. He explores different styles of expression such as performance installations, theatre, immersive performance and film. He has worked alongside international artists such as Peter Brook, Christian Boltanski and Frank Krawczyk. He was part of Brook’s production of The Suit, which premiered at The Young Vic and he has toured internationally. In recent years, Arthur has composed music for The Singapore Repertory Theatre and devised various shows collaborating with MA students and researchers at Goldsmiths University. He is the composer of the project Digital Umbilical, the winner of the Dansathon 2018 at Sadler’s Wells.

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SINOPSIS

Explorar enfoques innovadores dirigidos a audiencias nacionales e internacionales es uno de los mayores desafíos que plantea llevar a escena los clásicos del Siglo de Oro hoy.

Para crear Canciones del Siglo de Oro me he inspirado en fragmentos dramáticos y líricos de célebres autores como Calderón de la Barca, Miguel de Cervantes y Lope de Vega.

Los textos adaptados y reinventados se acompañan de la música experimental del compositor francés Arthur Astier. Este concierto poético profundiza en la esencia de los clásicos para desplegar cuestiones universales en torno a la búsqueda de identidad y la necesidad de libertad. Una conversación íntima entre pasado y presente a través de atmósferas habitadas por melodías y versos, que nos permiten volver a escuchar estas historias desde el deleite y la reflexión. El  proyecto juega en ocasiones con el bilingüismo (Castellano/Inglés) haciendo homenaje a tantos referentes de la escena musical internacional y al origen de esta colaboración artística; nuestro dúo Auric que nace en Londres.

Creo fervientemente en el poder de la palabra. La manera en la que estas historias fueron escritas nos  raspasa de forma colectiva con una fuerza única, nos transforma, llegando hasta el centro de nuestro entendimiento y pasiones. En Canciones del Siglo de Or, la música envuelve los versos para llevarnos
al plano de lo trascendental.  

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