Frankenstein
A Re-telling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
A collaboration with Ben Haggarty
Sianed and Ben first collaborated on ‘Midir and Eadoine’ a 10th century Irish epic. A story of the intense and destructive nature of beauty and love delving deep into the darkness of the ‘other world’. It proved to be a blinding combination with:-
Sianed’s soundscapes that occasionally burst into song and Ben’s intensely physical performance working his magic on the audiences imagination. The improvisational nature of the telling and the sound making, ensuring that every single performance was unique. Their performance literally raised the roof at the Beyond the Border Festival.
In ’99 they travelled to meet the epic singers of Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan and in exchange perform ‘The Transformation Tales’ a series of stories from the epic tradition of the British Isles.
Frankenstein is their latest collaboration commissioned by the Hay on Wye Literature Festival 2002 Performed at The Barbican 2003 and was part of the Gods and Monsters tour 2004. Sianed has shifted out of the purely acoustic mode into working with electronic effects, electric bass, going punk on the songs and using backing tracks, Ben embodying the dilemma of the tortured scientist and relishing the physicality of Monster.
There will be more performances of Frankenstein so watch this space!
Ben Haggarty Reviews
‘I was spellbound – I don’t use the word lightly – as Ben turned the austere lecture theatre around us into a flickering cave of wonder…
If you have a chance to hear the tales which have shaped the dreams of humankind, tales of the gods and monsters that haunt us still then sit down and listen’
The Times 2000
‘Haggarty’s telling is an adroit mix of the imposingly epic and the reassuringly rhythmic,tempered by a twinkle that admits to the story’s heightened nature without mocking it…’
The Times (2006)
_‘… and what a story this one was – not a simple one of unwitting,
but a playful one that unraveled itself mischievously in Haggarty’s skilful telling…’_
The New Statesman