The Winter's Tale, The Hermes Experiment, The Cockpit

If you like your Shakespeare short and to the point, and could do with more of the bits with music, this is the perfect version of The Winter's Tale.

Four musicians and five actors have devised with director Nina Brazier and the composer Kim Ashton this magical production, highly praised during its development at Aldeburgh in Suffolk in September, which will receive its premiere at The Cockpit.

Nina Brazier explains: “Exploring Shakespeare from a musical perspective with The Hermes Experiment gave us permission to think in a completely new way about how we approached the text. We used movement and gesture as much as text and music, creating a theatrical language that extends beyond the written and spoken word."

In this story of a husband whose jealousy is punished by the loss of his wife, and of a magical resolution, soprano Héloïse Werner plays Perdita and William McGeough is Leontes. The harp is played by Anne Denholm, double bass by Marianne Schofield, and Oliver Pashley plays both the clarinet and takes the role of Florizel.

The Hermes Experiment's unusual combination of voice and instruments allows it to explore a wide range of sound even within an intimate space. The ensemble commissions new works, so far from more than 30 composers, writes its own arrangements and improvises. It has won a string of awards.

Nina Brazier has worked as a staff director at the Royal Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, ENO, WNO and Opera North. Kim Ashton studied with Silvina Milstein and George Benjamin at King’s College London; he is a visiting lecturer at Cambridge University, where for the last 10 years he has taught composition, history, and analysis.

For more on The Hermes Experiment, click here.