Seven Last Words, St James’s Piccadilly

Live music, dance and spoken word created in collaboration with The Musicall Compass and writer Oliver Reynolds.

Creative Team

• Conductor: Crispin Lewis 
• Choreographer: Jo Meredith
• Writer: Oliver Reynolds
• Dancers: Marina Rodriguez, Edd Mitton, Grace Hann, Francesco  Mangiacasale
• Actors: Steven Lello, Kas Darley

Review

With St James’s Church Piccadilly as the backdrop, this evening of classical music, poetry and dance was already set to be pretty epic…
Oliver Reynolds’ ambiguous text is full and bursting with meaning – but is a clean slate at the same time.

The poetry and gradual heightening tempo and briskness of the music was also given a visual accompaniment which served as a bridge between the music and spoken word: dance.

Jo Meredith’s choreography had beautiful moments of sweeping dynamic energy and whirlwinds of passionate momentum that really made you feel more involved with the music – as the dance was very much at times a mirror image, or a visual representation, of the music itself.

The Musicall Compass, the period ensemble who performed Haydn’s work, was an 18 instrument group who are well worth tracking down as they perform in lots of different venues around London. Directed by Crispin Lewis, their seven orchestral movements were flawless, and complimented the setting, dance and poetry to a T.   Their decision to stage an updated version of a work that would usually only be seen within a religious context was a very welcome one. 

RemoteGoat