original music composed by Rory Boyle
A new collaboration between The Scottish Chamber Orchestra & Licketyspit. A thrilling musical and theatrical adventure into the world of Vikram Seth’s dark and hilarious Beastly Tales, for audiences of all ages.
Tales from India, from China, Greece, The Ukraine and The Land of Gup featuring: The Crocodile & The Monkey, The Louse & The Mosquito, The Eagle & The Beetle, The Mouse & The Snake, The Goat & the Ram...
The Beastly Tales will fully exploit the rich, bold and culturally diverse nature of its material. The six musicians will be fully integrated into a production, which will create a surprising and delightful event where actors fly as eagles, gabber like monkeys and argue like fishwives as the musicians punctuates and intensify the drama. This will be a truly visceral experience for audiences of all ages and promises to be an intoxicating piece of highly physical, visual, music theatre that will be irresistible.
Scottish composer Rory Boyle has created an exciting and original score for Violin, Double Bass, French Horn, Flute and Clarinet, to brilliantly underscore Seth’s poems - heightening and amplifying the drama of the poems in a delightful and accessible way. Licketyspit will bring a superb ensemble cast to the mix, together with arielist Jonathan Campbell and musical director Stephen Deazley to create a piece of theatre above, around and among the orchestra.
Some responses to a platform performance
'Fantastic show- loved the way the language and movement was paced with the music, it really brought all the narratives to life. Visually, the wire work is also brilliant. It really brings an extra dimension to the staging (and quite a few gasps from the audience!)'
'Thought the music and performances were fantastic. Brought my 6 year old who was enchanted- loved all the physical theatre and live music. She loved the humour and the short sketches- ie each poem meant that her interest and concentration were kept throughout. A show for all ages- language is sophisticated enough for grown ups but the physical aspects and humour keep the young audience members completely engaged too.'
'What an excellent company! Full of verve and wit. The stories are brilliantly supported by the music.'
'Thank you for a completely wonderful afternoon and for making the Beastly Tales so electric. The whole team was fantastic and I was totally impressed by what was achieved in just 2 weeks. Your 5 actors were so engrossing that I couldn’t take my eyes of them nor prevent my mouth from being fixed in a permanent grin.'
In 2006 we had a two week workshop on Beastly Tales with actors – Paul Bhattacharjee, Chris Nayak, Anita Vettesse, Chetna Pandya, Tas Embiata, Arielist Jonathan Campbell, Choreographer Faroque Khan, designer Georgia McGuinness.
The musical director was Stephen Deazley & SCO musicians Clare Sterling (Violin), Alison Green (Bassoon), Adrian Bornet (Double Bass) Harry Johnstone (French Horn) Lis Dooner (Flute)
Ruth Ellis (Clarinet).
