An outdoor theatre adaptation of a book of “spell poems” is to have its première at a new Midlands festival “celebrating the transformative impact of forests upon people and places”.
Seek, Find, Speak; A Conjuring Told in Gold is a spoken-word adaptation of The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. Timber is a festival at which “music, forests, art and ideas will weave together into an exhilarating weekend in the heart of the National Forest, one of Britain’s boldest environmental projects”.
Seek, Find, Speak takes the form of a forest theatre-trail for all ages, both self-guided and also led by performers. It will feature 3D installations of Jackie Morris’s illustrations and Macfarlane's words such as spells wrapped in gold lettering around trees. There will be sound recordings of poems read by athletes, naturalists, actors, poets, musicians and scientists.
Creator and director Collette Murray has 15 years’ experience as a professional director and voice coach. Her credits include Simon McBurney and James Yeatman’s adaptation of The Kid Stays in the Picture for Complicite at the Royal Court Theatre in 2017.
She said, “in Seek, Find, Speak we want to enchant people young and old to use their own voices to bring these spells to life in Britain's great outdoors.”
Robert Macfarlane added, “at the heart and origin of The Lost Words is a wish to bring nearby nature—the creatures, trees and plants with which we share our landscapes, but that too often slip from our care or attention—back into the lives and stories of Britain’s children.
“Collette’s adaptation promises to do exactly this in a new way—a spoken-word / oral culture performance to tour festivals this summer and then to look to a longer legacy for the adaptation in terms of a show that can be taken into schools.”
Seek, Find, Speak; A Conjuring Told in Gold will be staged at Timber, a “not-for-profit festival with sustainability at its heart”, at Feanedock, a 70-acre woodland site on the Leicestershire / Derbyshire border, from 6 until 9 July. Further details are available at the Timber Festival web site.