Four Quartets

T698148034

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Archive :: production:T698148034, dance or ballet:S497322341, venue:V371

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Production details

Published 75 years ago, Four Quartets is considered the crowning achievement of TS Eliot's career as a poet. Today three visionaries respond to the cycle in a ravishing union of dance, music and art. Celebrated New York-based choreographer Pam Tanowitz taps into Eliot's four-part poem, a mysterious meditation on past and present, time and space, movement and stillness, replete with images of dance. Her ten-strong ensemble moves lavishly through glorious solos and duets to a beguiling score by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho played live, while actor Kathleen Chalfant narrates from the stage, capturing the dynamic and kinetic language of Four Quartets. The evocative stage design centres on paintings by major American artist Brice Marden, their exquisite colours and strokes each making connections to the geographical locations of the masterpiece's four individual parts. Containing piercing and unforgettable literary passages, this unprecedented collaborative performance of the work is the first to be authorised by the TS Eliot Estate.