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Pass the Spoon

This is an example of an original composition sharing new insights into the creative potential of contemporary music theatre. The researcher collaborated with David Shrigley (visual artist and librettist) and Nicholas Bone (director, Magnetic North) to create this ‘sort of opera’, which was funded by a ‘Vital Spark’ award from Creative Scotland and supported by the PRS for Music Foundation, the Hope Scott Trust and The List. It was produced by Tramway and the Red Note Ensemble (the Royal Conservatoire’s in-house contemporary ensemble) for performance in Glasgow’s Tramway, and then remounted at the Traverse Theatre Edinburgh and the Southbank Centre, London in collaboration with the Southbank Centre. The Southbank performance was the inaugural live streaming event that opened Arts Council England’s digital arts platform, thespace.org.

The director explains Fennessy’s central role in the creative process: “A skilful composer can anticipate the way the action of a text will work on stage, incorporating changes of pace and moments of revelation. When Dave was setting the text, he’d often suggest places where music could do the job of the words, and so the writing process was one of editing and re-writing the text in response to the music and vice versa. The final text is about half the length of the first draft.” (Nicholas Bone, ‘Pass the Spoon - How David Shirgley’s Opera took shape’, The List (21 October 2011).)

The fully illustrated libretto is published by Hayward Publications.