NO WAY OUT: SYNOPSES

The Tart and the Princess plays out the tensions of an identity crisis suffered by Hilde, a woman a little past the first flush of youth, living in a seedy room in 1950s Paris. She is elegantly dressed, waiting for a handsome man, who is taking her to dinner and she has a beautiful young daughter asleep in her bed… Slowly, as she waits, the veneer cracks and crumbles as the elegant lady falls apart…

The Dinner Party sees Hilde arrive at the gentleman, Reynard’s apartment. Reynard is obviously besotted but she only has eyes for the opulence of his apartment - and then for the suave figure of Carter, an aging but well-to-do man of some means who, by chance, calls by on Reynard, very much to the latter’s annoyance. The unfortunate situation is compounded by the fact that Carter finds Hilde irritating, obviously preferring the company of Reynard...

Carter in Crisis is set in a park, on the same winter’s night, we find Carter making his way home in reflective mood after the dinner party. He suddenly finds himself confronted with a statue - the face of a young Adonis - timeless beauty set in stone. He becomes both enthralled and enraged by the boy, a compulsive and erotic attraction which contorts into jealousy and a bitter hatred, finally ending in tragedy and pathetic destruction...

Composer’s note: These three pieces - not unlike my full-scale rock opera, Chains! - explore the self we all find ourselves locked in to. We are all challenged by our own frailties and limitations, which often frustrate our ambitions, sometimes with tragic results. The Dinner Party is inspired by, rather than being an accurate interpretation of, Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1947 play Huis Clos (No Exit), which expounds the idea that “hell is other people.” Three fundamentally incompatible people find themselves thrust together in a distressing, claustrophobic situation that none of them seem able or willing to leave.

Christopher Wood