METEORS! KILLER PLANTS! B MOVIES! Platform 4’s Triffids! A gig theatre adventure in music, sound and pictures… is an incredible collision of music, text and rich visual imagery. This production takes the audience deep into John Wyndham’s classic cold war novel: The Day of the Triffids with a live soundtrack with instruments including Moog, Double Bass, Theremin, Hammered Dulcimer and… a Cactus!
Building on their past collaborations with local people, Platform 4 worked with the community at Highcliffe allotments, interviewing the many people on their sites. Asking them questions about weeds, climate change and their memories of Wyndham’s book gave a whole set of disparate answers which creator Catherine Church mashed together to act as interventions in the adaptation of the original novel. Platform 4’s Triffids! includes beautiful elegiac violin solos, melancholic wistful melodies inspired by a lost world to wacky, psychedelic 1990s acid house!
Platform 4 made a crucial change in their adaptation with the main protagonist Bill becoming Jill. This change helped bring the novel into the 21st century, cutting out many of the outdated comments the book indulged in.
Catherine Church comments, “None of us knew how weirdly prescient this piece would be – the novel essentially asks the question – what would you do if a deadly germ invaded the world? Would you stay in your immediate community? How would it make you feel about the many things we take for granted? How would it change your priorities in life etc etc? All of these questions are covered in the novel – finally, finally we get to perform this live….quite a challenge with the amount of sci fi instruments on stage – from a MOOG to a Theramin to a Harmonium to a Dulcimer and loads and loads of wacky samples and 1950s B Movie inspired sounds!
The incredible team behind Triffids! have worked with The National Theatre, Bellowhead, Southbank Centre, Kneehigh, BBC and The Bone Ensemble; together they create a very special magic, as seen in their previous collaboration, the acclaimed Invisible Music.
Platform 4 is an artist-led company that creates playful and unexpected worlds in which performers and participants can explore their creativity and the things that matter to them. The work is highly visual and musical, often intimate in scale and process. It connects people and puts human relationships at the heart of the event.
“Platform 4 are a remarkable company” – Lyn Gardner, The Guardian.
Created with kind permission from the John Wyndham Estate and Paper Lion Ltd
Performance Dates
26th February Warwick Arts Centre warwickartscentre.co.uk
2nd March Norwich Arts Centre norwichartscentre.co.uk
4th March North Wall Oxford eden-court.co.uk
5th March Lighthouse Poole lighthousepoole.co.uk
7th March Exeter Phoenix exeterphoenix.org.uk
8th – 9th March Theatre Royal Winchester theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk
10th March The Showroom Chichester theshowroomchichester.co.uk
11th March Salisbury Arts Centre wiltshirecreative.co.uk
12th March Cambridge Junction junction.co.uk
16th March Midlands Arts Centre Birmingham macbirmingham.co.uk
17th March West End Centre, Aldershot Hampshire westendcentre.co.uk
18th March Forest Arts Centre New Milton forest-arts.co.uk
19th March Arts Depot London artsdepot.co.uk
23rd March Colchester Arts Centre colchesterartscentre.com