Never Such Innocence

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The pianist Gamal Khamis and I are delighted to be returning to St Mary's Perivale on Sunday 5th November at 3pm for a live and live-streamed performance of NEVER SUCH INNOCENCE, our acclaimed narrative recital of words and music from the First World War. First performed in 2016 as part of the Somme 100 commemorations it has since been seen in concert venues, theatres and festivals across the UK, including sell-out performances in London's West End and it was described as “an incredibly moving performance” when it was featured on BBC Radio 3's In Tune.

NEVER SUCH INNOCENCE tells the story of my own great uncle, nineteen-year-old conscript Private Percy O'Key, through his real-life letters and diaries, interspersed with piano music of the period by composers including Elgar, Ravel, Debussy and Ivor Gurney and the words of writers such as Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas, Siegfried Sassoon and Vera Brittain.

"A moving and compelling journey from innocence to loss, told with unflinching clarity and compassion."

3pm Sunday 5th November

St Mary's Perivale, Perivale Lane, London, UB6 8SS

(Admission free with retiring collection)

And live online at: www.st-marys-perivale.org.uk

Audience comments from previous performances:

“Very special, deeply moving and immensely absorbing.”

“Spell-binding… so compelling to watch and listen to”

"The most amazing evening... one of the most moving and thought-provoking events I have ever attended."

“Beautifully nuanced show – tender, moving, angry

BFI London Film Festival

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It was good to spend some time at BFI London Film Festival last week and meet some of the makers. I enjoyed Killers of the Flower Moon, Saltburn and Maestro but couldn't find much to like about Foe (the otherwise admirable Paul Mescal looking rather overstretched, I felt). The Holdover Boys was a film that really grew on me (once you get over the initial similarities to Dead Poets Society, though it ends up being something quite different) and Paul Giamatti gives a standout leading performance. It was a particular pleasure to meet with director Alexander Payne afterwards and chat about some of his previous work.

ESPN Wimbledon 2023

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It's been a great pleasure for some years now to work with legendary Emmy-award winning writer and ESPN producer Jeff Sarokin on his annual trips to Wimbledon. Jeff's work is always so lyrical and imaginative - more like mood films than traditional sports promos. This is the preview we made for ESPN’s coverage of the Men's Final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic last week (and what a game that was).

An Exquisite Harmony

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Many thanks to all at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre for the packed sell-out performance and great reception last night for AN EXQUISITE HARMONY, our story about the lives, loves and music of Robert & Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Thanks too to Gamal Khamis for his beautiful playing and to Sarah Sherborne for so elegantly standing in for the indisposed Fenella Norman (now happily recovered). More dates to follow...

An Exquisite Harmony - new trailer drop

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We are delighted with the new trailer for An Exquisite Harmony, our show about the Lives, Loves and Music of Robert & Clara Schumann & Johannes Brahms, featuring Fenella Norman, Gamal Khamis (piano) and me.

Forthcoming performances are as follows:

Sunday June 25th, 5pm - All Saints Church, Church Street, Isleworth, TW7 6BE (opposite the London Apprentice by the river). Free with retiring collection

Sunday July 16th, 5pm - Jermyn Street Theatre, 16b Jermyn Street, London, SW1Y 6ST (2 mins from Piccadilly Circus). Tickets: £22/£20 via 020 7287 2875 or www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/an-exquisite-harmony/

An Exquisite Harmony

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We are delighted to announce that tickets are now on sale for the West End performance of An Exquisite Harmony at Jermyn Street Theatre, 16b Jermyn Street, London SW1Y 6ST on Sunday 16th July at 5pm. My piece about the lives, loves and music of Robert & Clara Schumann & Johannes Brahms is performed by me with the wonderful Fenella Norman and long-time recital partner the brilliant pianist Gamal Khamis.

www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/an-exquisite-harmony/

Audience comments from the premiere at St Mary's Perivale last November:

"absolutely brilliant… an amazing performance"

"an unforgettable afternoon"

"wonderfully life and love-affirming… will live long in the memory"

"an intriguing story with terrific piano playing"

"the script is brilliant... a magnificent triumph"

EGO Battery Power Redefined

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This was an interesting spot to work on for the new EGO Battery TV spot. The visuals and graphics from Refinery Marketing and Greenroom Films are really imaginative and their brief for the v/o was that they wanted something sophisticated and European sounding, rather than specifically UK or US, with IKEA and Audi branding as reference points. We were all really happy with the way it turned out. Kudos to director Michael Kearns…

Spring Tour with the Bridge Quartet

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I’m delighted to be teaming up with my friends the Bridge String Quartet again for a spring mini-tour. We first performed Haydn’s Seven Last Words in 2019 and have revived it each Easter since. Haydn originally wrote the work for the Good Friday service at the the Oratorio de la Santa Cueva in Cadiz in 1786 and we follow his original intention by interspersing its nine movements with spoken word readings, in our case classic and contemporary poetry by Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Philip Larkin, Mary Oliver and many others. Forty years later Beethoven had just recovered from serious illness when he wrote his immortal late quartet in A minor opus 132 and called the central slow movement “A holy song of thanksgiving to the deity from a convalescent recovering from illness”. We intersperse the movements with readings from his letters and diaries and poetry by TS Eliot, who cited the work as a particular inspiration for his own Four Quartets.

Tuesday 21st March, 7pm (London venue TBC) - Beethoven’s Holy Song of Thanks

§Thursday 30th March, 7pm Chester Road Baptist Church, Sutton Coldfield, B73 5HU - Haydn’s Seven Last Words

*Friday 31st March, 7pm Holy Trinity Church, Dilton Marsh, Wilts BA13 4DP - Haydn’s Seven Last Words

*Saturday 1st April, 7pm St Mary’s Church, Boyton, Wilts, BA12 0SS - Beethoven’s Holy Song of Thanks

*Tickets £15/£8 via boyton7lw@gmail.com

§Free with retiring collection

Screen X

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I was intrigued to be asked recently to voice a new trailer campaign for Screen X and delighted then to attend a Screen X screening last week of Ryan Coogler's brilliant Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. I have to say it is an amazing experience for a movie of that scale and spectacle. Screen X is an immersive format using 270-degree additional screens on the side walls which effectively operate as your peripheral vision so that often you feel like you’re within the action or things are flying past you (I ducked more than once!). V gratifying too to see and hear our trailer played before the screening in its full Screen X glory (congrats to the creative team at CJ 4DPLEX). I highly recommend seeking out a Screen X cinema if there's one nearby.