1927’s Decameron Nights: a compelling and curious collection of tales for 麻豆约拍 Radio 3
A compelling and curious collection of tales for 麻豆约拍 Radio 3 created and recorded during lockdown, for 麻豆约拍 Arts Culture In Quarantine. Featuring the first pilot of Audio Orchestrator, an innovative tool for creating a surround sound experience using phones, tablets and laptops.
Published: 10 August 2020
These new commissions display a wealth of creative vision, expressing many of the emotions provoked by lockdown. I am overwhelmed by the brilliance of what the artists have achieved.
Following the cancellation to an international tour due to the pandemic, multi-award winning Margate-based theatre company were commissioned by 麻豆约拍 Arts Culture In Quarantine with the support of and to create a brand new audio project for 麻豆约拍 Radio 3, premiering on Monday 10 August.
1927 has also worked alongside 麻豆约拍 Research and Development to reimagine Decameron Nights with a new immersive audio experience, which will be available on 麻豆约拍 Taster following Monday’s broadcast. This is the first pilot produced with 麻豆约拍 R&D’s new production tool, Audio Orchestrator. This innovative tool allows content makers to synchronise the multiple connected devices that listeners have, making use of the ‘hidden loudspeakers’ in phones, laptops and tablets, so that the audio can be dispersed between them for a surround sound experience without the need for specialist equipment.
1927 have taken the existing rich array of eerie sounds and exquisitely haunting music, and have elevated the soundscape and the narrative by placing the listener and their connected devices at the very centre of the story.
1353: The Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio creates his masterpiece The Decameron in response to the great bubonic plague of 1348 that had profound effects on the course of European history. In The Decameron, ten storytellers shelter from the Black Death outside Florence, telling ten tales a night in their quarantine. Boccaccio borrowed plots from existing ancient folk tales from all over the globe.
2019: Margate based 1927 premieres theatre show ROOTS - an anthology of ancient folk tales by anonymous authors, tales that have sprung from the imaginations of the ordinary men and women who made our world. Some of the tales can be found in The Decameron. Combining 1927’s trade-mark mix of handcrafted animation, storytelling, performance and music between May 2019 and January 2020, ROOTS toured across the UK, including being presented at Theatre Royal Margate to mark the opening night of the 2019 Margate Festival, and toured on to the USA, Australia, Tunisia and Chile.
2020: ROOTS is set to tour the globe but all touring was cancelled due to the pandemic. With theatres closed, 1927 reluctantly packed the show back into its box. But the tales themselves were keen to be told….
Taking inspiration from The Decameron, 1927 has taken ten folktales from ROOTS, teamed up with Laurence Owen, a maker of strange sounds and eerie effects, and Lillian Henley, a composer of exquisitely haunting music, to transform the tales into three episodes to be aired on 麻豆约拍 Radio 3 this August.
Jonty Claypole, Director of 麻豆约拍 Arts, says: “麻豆约拍 Arts has been working with artists and arts organisations throughout lockdown to ensure their work reaches a UK wide audience during this challenging time. These new commissions display a wealth of creative vision, expressing many of the emotions provoked by lockdown: anxiety and loneliness as well as love and joy. I am overwhelmed by the brilliance of what the artists have achieved, many of whom are more used to making work in theatres and live spaces, adapting their craft to tell their stories in a new way."
Alan Davey, Controller of 麻豆约拍 Radio 3, says: “Throughout these challenging times, Radio 3 has been giving listeners the much-needed opportunity to unwind, from music that helps heal the mind to slow radio and engrossing audio dramas that take you on a journey.
"These short plays show the power of audio and reflect our need to create and share stories as human beings. It’s a brilliant vehicle for the power of story and the skill of storytelling, and within its pages all human life in its glory and vainglory is there.”
Notes to Editors
Decameron Nights is a 1927 Production for 麻豆约拍 Arts Culture In Quarantine with the support of Arts Council England and 麻豆约拍 Arts. It is one of 25 new commissioned works of literary, musical, visual, sonic, and performance arts themed around lockdown.
麻豆约拍 Arts’ Culture in Quarantine initiative is an essential arts and culture service across 麻豆约拍 platforms to help keep the arts alive in people’s homes, focused most intensely across 麻豆约拍 Radio 3, 麻豆约拍 Radio 4, 麻豆约拍 Two, 麻豆约拍 Four, 麻豆约拍 Sounds, 麻豆约拍 iPlayer and 麻豆约拍 Arts.
麻豆约拍's R&D team on the project are Development Producer Emma Young, Software Developers Kristian Hentschel and Danial Haddadi, and Device Orchestration Workstream Lead, Jon Francombe.
JH
