The Telling: Purcell, The Musical

A play with music by award-winning writer Clare Norburn and BAFTA-nominated BBC director, Nicholas Renton (Mrs Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters, Musketeers, Lewis).1695: in his final illness, composer Henry Purcell (Niall Ashdown) is suffering from feverish dream-like hallucinations in which the past, present and fantasy collide, and his songs take on a life of their own.

His bedroom is transformed into a theatre and Purcell revisits his past including his childhood memories of the Great Fire of London and his early romance with his wife.Interwoven into the drama are Purcell compositions: from bawdy theatre ballads and joyful celebrations of love, to slow airs, a ‘mad song’, and numbers from his semi-operas.Niall Ashdown (Whose Line Is It Anyway?, The Comedy Store Players) stars as Purcell alongside actor-singers Sarah Lambie and Héloïse Bernard, Jo Lawrence on violin, Miriam Nohl/Rachel Gray on cello and Oliver John Ruthven/Aidan Phillips/Jan Waterfield on harpsichord.