Dušica Mladenović performs Ian Wilson's music theatre work for violinist 'Beside the Sea' (Dublin & Navan)
Featuring Dušica Mladenović, violin.
“Beside the Sea” is an ambitious and innovative work for violinist and soundtrack staged within a specially-built set that evokes a dock by the sea. Through an imaginative combination of sound, staging, and movement a story is told of how music, love, and family meet one of the greatest challenges.
Ian Wilson wanted to make this piece since his father Jim died in 2018 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s; the result is a work of art which examines the roles memory and music have in shaping a person, in establishing the strongest bonds between people, and in defining what is really important in life.
Violinist Dušica Mladenović tells us the story-without-words through music, movement, and her interaction with the onstage objects. She is the audience’s guide, commenting musically on the unfolding drama and interacting with objects on the stage – Jim’s old guitar, some of his tools, records from his collection, etc. – to build up a picture of Jim’s life that was so much involved with
music.
The piece starts with sounds of the sea and of sailing, two of Jim’s great loves, launching us on our journey. At the outset Dušica is our captain, leading us from a sunny, breezy day at the beach through a life – perhaps not too unlike other lives – with its attendant joys, loves, and love of music. We start to hear fragments of a recently-discovered old LP of Jim’s wife Norma – a professional soprano – singing, and of recordings of the choir Jim sang in for 40 years. Sounds of his old guitar occur regularly throughout. We later hear sounds related to engineering and the practical work that Jim was constantly involved in.
The progress of “Beside the Sea” also reflects the progress of Alzheimer’s disease, and so things begin to slowly fall apart. The ship changes course, the captain becomes a doctor, a wife, a child, and there is growing confusion, disorientation and a final falling away of everything once held dear. We hear hospital noises, which became all too familiar as Jim’s Alzheimer’s progressed. But ever-present are sounds of the sea, Norma’s voice – which at the very end of his life was the only voice Jim could recognise – and music itself, which he still enjoyed and recognised up to his last days. Finally our violinist-guide gathers all the once-important things (guitar, LPs, tools, sheets of music, ship-lamp) and gently lets them fall into the ocean, echoing all the memories that have floated away. Only Norma’s song endures and – at the very end – only the sound of the sea, as it will remain when we all pass away.
Featuring acclaimed Serbian violinist Dušica Mladenović, directed by Olivia Songer and designed by Jack Scullion, and featuring a hugely evocative soundtrack which the composer made in collaboration with Shanghai-based Irish sound artist Steve McCourt, “Beside the sea” is a universal and uplifting story of changing minds and bodies and, most of all, love.
Dates, Venues & Tickets
3 May, 7.30pm | The National Concert Hall, Dublin, The Studio | Booking via the National Concert Hall here.
5 May, 8pm | Solstice Art Centre, Navan | Booking via Solstice Arts Centre.