I was honoured to be a part of a beautiful theatrical endeavour earlier this year, which not only gave me the chance to work with one of South Africa’s most respected theatre directors, but it also pushed my composing skills into an interesting new genre.
Every year, Abrahamse & Meyer Productions, a South African based independent theatre company known for their passion theatre projects, are invited to the annual Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival in Massachusetts, USA. As the name suggests, this festival honours the late playwriting titan Tennessee Williams, responsible for immortal works such as A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). One of the pieces Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer took to the festival this year (2019) was one of Williams’ real gems, The Night of the Iguana (1961).
Tennessee Williams (1911 – 1983)
Those who are familiar with the story will know the play’s singular setting and powerful performance-driven characters. While many productions of Iguana have definitely captured Williams’ emotional intent, A&M decided to go one step further by taking inspiration from traditional Japanese Noh theatre in terms of its minimal set and heightened style of performance – which perfectly complements Iguana‘s story and setting.
Traditional Japanese Noh Theatre
In this regard, the goal I was given as the composer was to represent the characters’ environment without being just another collection of sound effects. In other words, the audience would eventually clue into the fact that even though they are hearing instruments, they would come to associate them with various aspects of the story, such as birds, wind, the ocean, even the titular iguana itself. In a way, the music would be (forgive the oxymoron) literally metaphorical.
To name a few examples, in order to represent a parrot screaming, I put a Dizi flute sample through a warped reverb effect while continuously adjusting the pre-delay; and the wind was given a combination of reverb-effect female choirs and Japanese koto harps. Throughout this score, a “main theme” was evident using scraping percussion, and ethnic wind and string instruments. Other more subtle “tongue-and-cheek” techniques include a choir singing the Japanese translation (or as close as possible) of “act three” at the beginning of the third act.
You can listen to the released album by following the link below:
https://artist.landr.com/music/628810808526
This was definitely a project close to my heart, as I was required to think outside the box and toss out all conventional rules of writing – which, in my opinion, normally produces the best work from most, if not all, composers. I will always be grateful to Fred and Marcel for this chance to tap into my inner avant-garde composer – it was a ride to remember!
