Once a concept album, Jack Dean & Company are now touring with a new outdoor gig-theatre show staged in their own bandstand.
Six multi-instrumentalists tell the tragic Greek myth of Hero and Leander, a love story told through songs inspired by folk, indie, sea shanties and choral music. It is a story of borders, of bad rulers, worse weather, and how we keep going when everything is terrible.
The show will be touring across England, including a Wiltshire stop on July 17 at the Pound Arts Centre in Corsham.
The six musicians tell the story together through vocals, creating atmosphere and an unpredictable sea with instruments including cello, violin, guitars, trumpet, percussion and an accordion. Two towns, one rich and one poor, stand separated by a narrow strip of ocean. When the borders close and ships stop sailing between them, two lovers are left stranded on either side. Unphased, Leander takes to swimming across the channel to meet Hero, guided by the light of the lighthouse where she lives.
But the jealous and vengeful Hephaestus, carrying an ancient grudge, plots to separate them with a flood like neither town has ever seen.
Writer and company founder Jack Dean said: "Hero and Leander is an old, bittersweet story about love, death and the infinite mystery of the sea. We filled the score out with sea shanties, lush indie orchestration and melodic folk. It's kind of an ode to a disappeared England, and I also think it will speak to anyone who's done something a bit daft and over-the-top for someone they loved when they were young."
Jack Dean & Company is a non-profit organisation set up to help portray stories of how things could be.
Show info:
Pound Arts Centre, Wiltshire
Pound Pill, Corsham SN13 9HX
7pm | £12 – Free
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here