ROAD RAGE COMMUNITY OPERA
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STORY: Despite the slow collapse of the Roman economy, the Romans are still building new roads in obsessively straight lines. Some hungry Red Kites look on as a gang of ancient British slaves move a cube of chalk on its way to be part of a temple miles away. The kites attack and the stone is left slap in the middle of the route of the road. The stone stands unchanged for 1800 years. Now surrounded by talkative trees and animals, plans are afoot for a new toll road, dividing a village and community. What unfolds has the usual trappings of a modern day planning crisis with some unexpected twists, overlooked and commented on by opinionated Red Kites.
MUSIC: Orlando Gough has created a witty, fast-paced musical score to match the text and to involve every aspect of our community cast. This ranges from beat-boxing Red Kites to beautiful lyrical expressions of our ‘green and pleasant land’. He finds scope for punchy political activism and Ministerial patter whilst carefully entwining the diversity of age groups in energetic ensemble numbers.
TICKETS
Tickets are now on sale and can be booked online or via our Box Office (01865 361636) and are £10 each (£5 for children and full-time students). The opera is suitable for audiences of age 5 and upwards.
PERFORMANCES
Friday 19 July 2013 – 7.00pm
Saturday 20 July 2013 – 2.30pm and 7.00pm
70 minutes duration without an interval
The Gates will open an hour and a half before a performance begins
GET INVOLVED
We are still looking for chaperones, sewing experts and offers of accommodation and front of house help. Any volunteers please contact Company Manger Andrew Miller.
DESIGN WORKSHOPS
We are providing a free Road Rage drop-in design and prop-making workshop for young people (12+) and adults with Community Opera designer Rhiannon Newman Brown on Saturday May 11, 10.30-4.30pm at Lacey Green & Loosely Row Millennium Hall as part of the Wycombe Arts Festival 2013, and supported by Speen Festival. To receive more details about how to reserve your free place email communityopera@garsingtonopera.org
CAST RESOURCES
See the cast pages. These resources are for participants only.
Composer: Orlando Gough
Librettist: Richard Stilgoe
Conductor: Susanna Stranders
Director: Karen Gillingham
Vocal Director: Lea Cornthwaite
Designer: Rhiannon Newman Brown
Girl: Clare Presland
Minister: Daniel Norman
Political Adviser: Peter Willcock
Surveyor: Alexander Hargreaves
‘Road Rage’ Community Cast (ages 6-86)
Including children from Ibstone C of E Infant School, Stokenchurch Primary School, Buckinghamshire and Chalgrove Community Primary School, Oxfordshire.
Other parts played by members of the cast.
