Friday 25 February 2022

The Wellspring: An exploration of fathers and sons

Barney Norris & David Owen Norris: The Wellspring - Royal & Derngate Northampton

As part of its Made in Northampton 2021/22, Royal & Derngate in Northampton is presenting a new work by playwright Barney Norris. An event noted on this blog because Barney Norris is the son of pianist and composer David Owen Norris, and The Wellspring is a collaboration between the two. The piece examines that age-old story of a boy and his dad, and how they can relate to one another, in every sense of the word, and the work features an intimate performance by the father and son. 

A rich autobiographical exploration of their relationship, The Wellspring takes us inside the complex and shifting dynamic between this father and son, exploring the people and stories that shape us. Their performances will be accompanied by both folk and classical music performed by both David Owen Norris and Barney Norris, creating a scrapbook style collage of the pair's lives together. 

Barney Norris said: "The Wellspring is a play about fathers and sons, and a particular father and son who have spent time apart and want to hear each other's stories. It's also about how we end up in the lives we end up in, and the wild, precarious adventure of deciding to be an artist - something my Dad and I both did. We want to use the play to fill auditoria with music, and song, and joy, and happy memory; also with loss, with revelation, with the vulnerability of extreme honesty. We want it to feel, effectively, like being in a family."

The Wellspring is directed by Jude Christian, and ut runs in Northampton from 17 to 26 March 2022, 29 to 30 March in Oxford, 26 to 28 May in Southampton, 30 May to 1 June in Guildford and then touring to literary festivals this summer. 

Details from the Royal & Derngate website.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Popular Posts this month