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Jessie Coller as Ceventry-born Delia Derbyshire best know for her pioneering work on the original Dr Who theme tune. Photo: Arnim Freiss Hymns for Robots
Coventry Belgrade B2
*****
If like me you are in later middle age, you might have messed
around with a tape recorder, a lot more capable of being meddled with
than its descendant the cassette.
You
could play things back slow or fast, or even backwards, and laugh at the
never heard before sounds.
Delia Derbyshire the subject
of this play took it to a whole new level, turning annoying or funny
sounds into a musical aural experience.
Doing what today we call sampling, and mixing.
So an experimenter, and
visionary. The play captures brilliantly
the eras that she worked in, and the inequality she faced in trying to
find work and recognition.
And although her life story is not full of adventure and drama, anymore
than any number of people at that period, the play draws you in to the
personality of the women, her obsession with creating soundscapes, and
her, by the standards of the time, eccentric behavior and attitude.
The part of Miss Derbyshire
was realized by a virtuoso performance by Jessie Coller.
Most of the play being a monologue of episodes from the life of
Delia. The other person on stage is her assistant and friend Brian,
played by Charles Craggs who also had his hands full providing the
electronic sounds, which ran through almost continuously.
The stage set is festooned
with old brown magnetic tape and tape recorders, and some office
furniture. I found the play involved you
in it and held you by power of its well written script and its great
delivery, how she managed to remember all those lines is a mystery to a
mortal like me. Definitely a play to see.
Worth 5 stars from anyone I should think. To 21-09-18
Craig Boulton 20-09-18 |
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