Dr Dee’s Daughter and The Philosopher’s Stone
Recorder consort Palisander and Rust & Stardust puppets
Saturday November 12, Brighton Friends’ Meeting House at 11.30am
This was a brand new collaboration and family friendly show with live music from recorder consort Palisander accompanied by the delightful narration and handmade puppets from Rust & Starlight. It was an exciting blend of music, puppetry and storytelling with themes of history, magic and science blended in taking the wonderful story of Dr Dee, scientist, magician and all round meddler in the arcane and unknowns and his daughters who assist and attempt to put things back to sense of normal after he unleashes forces unknown. In 1595, Dr John Dee, alchemist, astronomer and magician takes his family and relocates to draughty Manchester College. While he is immersed in study, his daughter Katherine reads about his abandoned quest to discover the Philosopher’s Stone, the Elixir of Life and the music wove an extraordinary back story to this fun and engaging show.
Rust & Stardust is a Sussex-based company and their work combines theatre, puppetry, animation and music, it shows how passionate they are about stories and storytelling, folklore and mythology and the obvious craft and care that go into the production of their multi use sets and puppets. Carefully working the story in and around the music this collaboration kept a room full of children spellbound for an hour (no mean feat) and the adults interested and engaged also. They were funny with some artful deconstructive laughs for the adult’s in the room while keeping the focus firmly on the narrative tension for the youngsters.
This was an excellent, comfortable event at the Friends Meeting House and a great way of introducing younger people to ancient music and also the art of storytelling and the craft of doing so with props, puppets and magic that you’ve created and made yourself. With Palisander attired in courtly Elizabethan angelic gossamer and with hardly a pause to check the music, they worked those wondrous recorders of all shapes and sizes in a deft performance, showing us the range of recorder music at its best, while the kids watched the antics of the puppetry crows and shadows…
Superb on all levels!
Recorder consort Palisander are
Lydia Gosnell
Hannah Fisher
Miriam Nerval
Caoimhe de Paor
The BREMF is now over and delivered a wide programme of music, with eclectic and curious performances in some superb venues across the city. The music this year was excellent it’s a real gem of a festival, you can see an overview of the entire festival here or sign up for their newsletter.
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