The Oxford Samuel Becket Theatre Trust Award helps the development of emerging practitioners engaged in bold, challenging and innovative performance. Every two years, we select a company or individual to create a show for our studio theatre, The Pit.
This year’s winner is Finn Beames, whose Quiet Songs you can watch between 22 October and 2 November. Through an intriguing fusion of music, storytelling, and unconventional instrumentation, Quiet Songs tells the story of what happens to a voice when it is cruelly pushed to breaking point, and how self-expression can be found beyond that.
‘The show is a performance for a single actor and a string quartet,’ Beames says. ‘As well as playing their instruments with bows, the musicians use a variety of dulled swords and blades to produce a soundworld of unsettling discomfort and fragile beauty. In this haunted atmosphere, a story is told in whispers and gasps — a story of a single human voice.’
The project revolves around the use of swords to play stringed instruments, a concept born from Beames' previous exploration of the armoury of the Royal Opera House. Working with a cellist, who picked up a sword and used it as a bow, sparked a journey of discovery, leading Beames to craft a narrative where the clash of steel against strings becomes a metaphor for the tumultuous journey of self-discovery.
Central to Beames' artistic vision is a commitment to the idea that anyone can make music. Interwoven with his contemporary practice is his co-creative work with adults with aphasia, a communication disorder resulting from brain damage. As a founder of Aphasia New Music Group, Beames works with individuals to find empowerment and self-expression through music, a language which resonates with us all.
Winning the Oxford Samuel Becket Theatre Trust Award was important for Beames, he says, because in a landscape often driven by commercial imperatives, this award celebrates the spirit of artistic exploration and the pursuit of unconventional forms.
We can’t wait to see the results of this award in The Pit.
Quiet Songs: Finn Beames & Company, 22 Oct - 2 Nov 2024, The Pit
Words by James Drury
