Theatre
Image: Terri in the online production Secret Country
Robyn Works in theatre as a composer, director and performer. They are an associate artist with life story theatre company Re-Live. More of Re-Live's work can be found at www.re-live.org.uk
Secret Country
Robyn Co-directed the 2020 online performance with Re-Live theatre Company, 'Secret Country'. The production was performed over zoom to a worldwide audience over three days. The recording of the full performance is available to watch here.
Nine extraordinary older people (the youngest 72, the oldest 93¾) spent twelve weeks on Zoom, working with Re-Live, to devise a performance based on their lived experiences of lockdown and Covid-19. The result is a brave, powerful and humorous insight into the hidden lives of an isolated generation.
Belonging
The Return
Belonging/Perythyn is a production by Re-Live theatre company which follows the lives of two families as they discover that love and laughter don't stop because of dementia.
Belonging toured Wales in 2016 and again in 2018 having wonderful several Wales Theatre Awards (Best Actor for Llion Williams and Best Director for Peter Doran).
The score uses accordion (Robyn James Clark) and guitar (Alex Haines) and with the use of live effects the music became the entire sound design for the show.
Morys, a character in Belonging experiences sounds and environments differently due to his dementia.
As heard in 'By the sea' and 'Cliff Edge', sounds and memories of places are fragmented so that peaceful places such as the sea, which gave him respite in the past, are now turbulent and overwhelming places to be. Hiraeth is a Welsh folk song which roughly translates to "longing", Morys clings to this melody as his sense of self fades.
The Return is a production by Re-Live theatre company. A re-imagining of a WW1 Victory Ball that was held at Oakdale Workmen's Institute for returning veterans in 1919. An Immersive life story theatre performance featuring ex-service personnel, their families, actors and community members.
Robyn composed and performed a live piano score for the production which shifted between reminiscent singalongs and contemporary accompaniments to storytelling and movement sequences which described the current experience of returning veterans.