Written by Mark C. Hewitt, music composed by Thomas Strønen the Norwegian percussionist and with videographic interventions by film artist Matt Parsons, we are presented with a trilogy Songs of the Chambermaids that are drawn from Sigmund Freud’s 1930 essay, Civilization and its Discontents. Revisiting Freud’s work is very poignant at this time. If you consider the world that he lived when he had to decipher what was happening into some kind of psychoanalytical explanation, I think a lot of his theories could be very relevant to what is happening today in the world.
Love and work bind us together
Lyric from: The non satisfaction of powerful Influences
Performers Marta Carvalho as Ana, Leann O’Kasi as Bo and Melissa Sirol as Cressida, give powerful performances of emotion, rage and often despair throughout these songs. The close ups, the dark backdrop, graphical text and Strønen‘s atmospheric music combine with this performance to give a truly theatrical and visceral experience for the viewer.
The repetition of the lyric “how far we have come” makes me wonder if that should have an exclamation mark after it. Have we moved that much further than when Freud wrote this paper? Or are we just repeating history? Have we learnt anything at all?
The lyric “Thou should love thigh neighbour as thyself, what’s that about?” sang with a deliberate cynicism, resinates with me as I watch a report on Sky News where we see an interview with Russian girls lamenting not having access to apple pay because of sanctions while their neighbours are being bombed by their government.
The audience is kept engaged throughout the three songs because of the compelling lyrics and strong rhythmic percussive beat. Despite each of the songs only being five minutes long, a lot is covered.
To view these performance and others visit https://thelivingrecord.com/
