Back from a mini tour of Yorkshire and Stockport and cheering for supporting act Indignation Meeting
The Musician: A Horror Opera for Children
Well-staged prequel to The Pied Piper lacks emotional charge
Musician pic credit: The Belfast Ensemble
ALISTAR FINDLAY is mesmerised by this multiple ‘Visions of Scotland’ assault on the audience’s eyes and senses
The Star's critics ANGUS REID, ANDY HEDGECOCK and MICHAL BONCZA reviews I Am Love, The Penguin Lessons, Freaky Tales, The Thicket
MAYER WAKEFIELD has reservations about the direction of a play centered on a DVLA re-training session for three British-Pakistani motorists
New releases from Steve Knightley, Jupiter & Okwess, Jason Palmer, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Driver, Kin'Gongolo Kiniata, Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey, Dan Sealey, Simin Tande, PAZ
JOHN GREEN relishes photography that unfolds a longstanding and poetic relationship with Leeds
A uncomfortably misogynistic authorial voice that sometimes seems to lack insight troubles FIONA O’CONNOR
CONOR MITCHELL’S children's play The Musician is a prequel to The Pied Piper of Hamelin, known to most through the version by the Brothers Grimm and the poetry of Robert Browning.
Written, directed, composed and choreographed by Mitchell for the Belfast Ensemble, it's also an introduction to operatic style and convention, challenging children to embrace the power of music while also engaging in what is, effectively, a morality tale.
The story is of a boy alone in the world. Into his path steps a strange musician, taunting him with haunting melodies which entrance the boy. He learns to play the stranger’s flute-like pipe and, as his power and musicality grow, so his kind nature is consumed and he responds to the unkindness of others with harsh and devastating consequences.
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