Interactive Broadcast
21:00-22:15, Thursday 29th July 2021
Catch-up for £1 until 26th August
Online
There is also a live performance of this show at The Cockpit at 19:30-20:25, Tuesday 27th July 2021.
Music: Edwin Roxburgh
Words: Jonathan Ruffle
‘Her War’ is a challenging new opera for soprano and trumpet about a traumatised nurse who returns from WWI only to clash with an uncaring government, forcing her to be a pioneer for nurses’ rights. Based on the research of three leading academics in WWI nursing trauma, ‘Her War’ offers long-overdue recognition of the historical nurses’ contribution and highlights the striking parallels between their experience and that of contemporary nurses processing their own experiences of trauma in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The interactive broadcast will include a Q&A with the creative team and some of the academics whose work inspired and informed the opera.
You can read Her War’s libretto here.
Dr. Christine Hallett on WWI nurses and COVID:
First World War nurses experienced many different forms of trauma, ranging from the obvious dangers and pressures of working in a war zone — sometimes very close to the battlefield — to the more hidden and pervasive traumas that accompanied ‘rushes’ of casualties in under-staffed hospitals. Nurses’ personal writings often refer to the stress of watching patients die who could have been saved if only more time or more personnel had been available. Many nurses carried these memories with them for the rest of their lives, and some suffered severe emotional trauma or mental illness as a result. The parallels with today’s Covid-19 ‘front line’ nurses are obvious. The relentless pressure of struggling to preserve lives that might be saved but are lost in spite of one’s best efforts, due to workload pressures, lack of equipment or just for unknown reasons leaves a heavy physical and mental toll.
Age range: Parental guidance, 13 upwards
Content advisories: PTSD, explicit references to injury, loud noises
Produced by SoundRanger Studio
Venue: Online
www.facebook.com/AprilFredricksoprano
www.facebook.com/simon.desbruslais
If you would like to help Tête à Tête and the artists creating this show, take a look at this.
Music: Edwin Roxburgh
Words: Jonathan Ruffle
Soprano: April Fredrick
Trumpet: Simon Desbruslais
Academic Advisors: Dr Christine Hallett, Amanda Gwinnup, Denise Poynter
Costumes and Historical Advisor: History Needs You
On the same day:
Music: Edwin Roxburgh
Words: Jonathan Ruffle
Soprano: April Fredrick
Trumpet: Simon Desbruslais
Academic Advisors: Dr Christine Hallett, Amanda Gwinnup, Denise Poynter
Costumes and Historical Advisor: History Needs You