The Bridge Between Breaths
​
THE BRIDGE BETWEEN BREATHS
Music by Gareth Churchill
Words by Hafsah Aneela Bashir
​
Workshop performance of Act 1
Interactive online broadcast - 8th September 2020
​
An artist shares the stage with singers and instrumentalists, responding to sound with brushstrokes on canvas. Deaf and hearing audiences meet in the space between breaths in this filmed workshop presentation of Act I. View the opening part of this new work in progress as we explore the possibility of making opera accessible to D/deaf audiences through art, followed by audience Q&A.
​
It’s 1795. Pero Jones is stood peering out of the attic window of 7 Great George Street, Bristol. He is drinking, lamenting about his beloved from the Caribbean island of Nevis…
Inspired by the felling of Colston’s statue, this is opera resonating with reality.
​
​
Inhale.
The slow sweet measured gift of the breath entering the vast expanse of who we are.
A sacred space of encounter, between the chest bone and our hearts, where we meet. Our breath a bridge between us, time suspended, here our stories rise and fall.
The touch of fingers along the back of a hand, the voice at the end of a line, the Ruh rising from the ground, here where everything is a mirror, we wait. A line break in life. A stillness.
The birth of new ways to be, divine poetry in the swirl of our mouths, a light so bright, we hold our breath here even if it hurts to breathe, even if staying alive is a feat, here, where being human is a miracle, our breath - the bridge between us is no longer yours or mine.
At once, as One.
Exhale.
​
​
​
Co-Directors - TORIA BANKS and SIMONE IBBETT-BROWN
Musical Director - STEPHEN HIGGINS
Artist - TIFFANY LAMBERT
Pero - RONALD SAMM
Spirit - JOANNE ROUGHTON-ARNOLD
Clarinet - MATTHEW SCOTT
Cello - JAMES DOUGLAS
Co-Producers - JOANNE ROUGHTON-ARNOLD and MATHILDA DU TILLIEUL McNICOL
​
We gratefully acknowledge support from
