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No More These Sounds17th September 2016
Camden People's Theatre, London On the 19th of January 1972 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe announced the prelude to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy", in an arrangement by Karajan, as the Anthem of Europe. But, as with every tune, there are different versions. No More These Sounds is both proud of and appalled by Europe. It wrestles with itself in a troubled exorcism; going from the absurdly celebratory to the abjectly apotheosic, in a search for communal redemption. Whilst undermining everything that is official, bureaucratic, and centred on the politico-economic establishment; it hangs on the to the belief in a European dream, where its people are at its centre. Letting conflicting compositions around Beethoven’s theme clash with one another, it rejects the aseptic and official harmony, embracing the noisy richness of cacophony. No More These Sounds dares us to make the tune our own, and imagine new melodies. This piece was commissioned as part of 'Being European: After the Referendum', and event in partnership with the European Theatre Research Network (University of Kent), the Inside/Outside Europe Research Network (University of Winchester) and Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre, |
