Voices in the Wilderness

7 Mar '15 - Fringe event - Tailor of Gloucester

(From Kerry O'Regan)

We were most excited to be part of the Adelaide Fringe this year. And what a wonderful part it was.

Jodie had set to music the delightful Beatrix Potter story of The Tailor of Gloucester. She used actual text from the book and drew on traditional folk melodies from the Gloucester region. Arranged it all for soloists, chorus, and string accompaniment.

Our production was more than a choir standing on stage and singing. The Tailor and Simpkin were fully costumed and acted their parts. The rest of us were dressed in colours used in the book's illustrations , so partly functioned as background scenery but also came to life as characters in crowd scenes as well.

Jodie had written a couple of songs for children attending and so they participated in the drama as well by both singing and acting the part of the mice, fitted out with ears and whiskers for the occasion. Just to show how diverse are our talents, various members of the choir had knitted hundreds of little mice that the children could take away as mementoes of the event.

It was all huge fun and something quite different from our usually staid choral performances.