Output details

Miss Donnithorne's Maggot

The 2012 St. Magnus International Festival commissioned me to produce and direct the first film version of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ seminal opera ‘Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot’ (1974). The project was designed to be experienced in three ways: as a live immersive performance for the festival, as a feature film and as a Blu-Ray disk (with accompanying booklet).

For the Film and Blu-Ray version, the festival performance was filmed and edited, and the projected elements were combined with visual effects sequences to give audiences a close approximation of the live experience. Research comprised new techniques and technologies for combining real time visuals into live performances. During the festival performance filmed sequences were projected onto the stage and combined with real time visual effects allowing the soloist to interact with virtual characters and scenes. The locus of research lay primarily in the simplification of the previously expensive and complex processes of managing sound, image and performance to create an immersive experience for the audience.

In addition to contributing new knowledge to the discourse on film media and real time visuals, the project adds to the canon of research in scenography and musicology and has been cited by scholars in both fields. This is the first time a Music Theatre work has been staged interactively with real time visual effects. Maxwell Davies credits the project as being responsible for re-energizing the work and enabling it to reach new audiences. The piece was performed again in 2013 at the Esplanade Recital Hall in Singapore as part of Digital Arts Week and the film has been screened in the UK and internationally. The project was cited as evidence of emerging scholarly interest in live visuals by the Real Time Visuals Network that resulted in new AHRC funding.