The Flying Dream

Program note:
A man is carried, suspended by his suit and his skin by two doppelgängers. He is in a tiny, freezing Berlin apartment, but dreams of a heaven, dreams of a home half a world away. The Flying Dream forms the opening and closing moments of the dance-theatre work Lawn, and aims to speak not only of our protagonist’s journey toward death, but also to acknowledge the history seen by the walls that surround him.

The dance-theatre work Lawn is filled with anxiety and half truths, of loneliness and the mistrust of strangers. Yet at the core of that darkness the dancers seem to bring an utterly true sense of humanity, of trust, of hope and self belief and, importantly, humour. This is no nihilist anti-societal tragedy – no self absorbed avant-garde polemic. It is for me a celebration of our most private thoughts in all their complexity – a secular journey into self realization.

Other Media
The Flying Dream is part of the repertoire of the orchestral project Deep Blue, and was performed by them most notably as part of the fire ceremony at the 2009-10 Woodford Folk Festival.

2004

The Flying Dream

For Cello (amplified with digital delay) and CD