Contemporary music collective Phaedra Ensemble present Plantation A…, a sonic reworking of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s seminal 1957 novel La Jalousie. Composed by Edward Jessen, and starring soprano Anna Pych.

“…a theatrical puzzle of time and place, one saturated in geometry, conducted in sound.”

In the 1950s, French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet innovated a form of storytelling focused on what is in the background: objects, buildings, atmospheres. His stories spell out the habits and patterns of people: what they hold, where they sit and how they touch. Robbe-Grillet’s breakthrough novel, La Jalousie (Jealousy), repeatedly visits an assortment of compact scenes – each within the same day-and-a-half window – on adjacent plantations in an undisclosed location. The story’s narrator, a man brought to a standstill by jealousy, suspects an infidelity between his wife and their neighbour.

Plantation A… is an experimental sonic theatre work by composer Edward Jessen. It is presented by London-based Phaedra Ensemble with Polish soprano Anna Pych and movement artist Iris Athanasiadi. It has been developed with movement artist Holly Thomas as Audio Description and Access Consultant.

The project has been made possible with funding from Arts Council England, PRS Foundation, Hinrichsen Foundation, Vaughan Williams Foundation and from Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

Please see below for an audio introduction, written and recorded by audio describer Charlotte Whitten.