Music, dance, drama & poetry
In addition to a variety of festivals and exhibitions taking place in 2009, England is also host to some superb tributes from the performing arts arenas - from poetry readings and classical music performances to dramatisations and dance events.
Darwin and the Dodo
2009 tour
Desperate Men
A small-scale comic walkabout show using two characters, Darwin and the Dodo, to examine Darwin’s life, ideas and legacy. The performance weaves together scientific and philosophical themes linking evolution and extinction, creating an entertaining, engaging piece that will provoke debate.
The Entangled Bank
Early 2009
Shrewsbury
Poets are invited to write poems which reflect the way in which the landscape and environment can inspire the observant and enquiring mind. A selection will be put on display around Shrewsbury, for example on the Park and Ride and in the shopping centres. There will also be poetry readings and an anthology of the best poems will be published.
Sonarboria
February 2009
Online
Sonarboria sets out to provide a richly interactive online experience inspired by Darwin’s ‘tree of life’. People are invited to explore the principles of natural selection by cultivating a forest of musical trees.
Darwin’s Microscope
February 2009
Readings in Cambridge: Poet Kelley Swain will read from her book of poems inspired by Darwin, Darwin’s Microscope.
Darwin Song Cycle project
19 March 2009
Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury
Eight multi-talented musicians will live together in a 16th Century country house near Shrewsbury in Shropshire - where Darwin was born - from March 13 to 20 2009. BBC Folk Award winners Chris Wood and Karine Polwart, folk stalwart Jez Lowe, Scotland’s Emily Smith, American artists Krista Detor and Mark Erelli, Bellowhead’s Rachael McShane, and Stu Hanna from rising folk duo Megson, have all signed up to produce songs related to Darwin, his life, work, or any other topic linked to the town’s most famous son.
An evening of performance poetry
9 July 2009
The Junction (www.junction.co.uk/), Cambridge
In collaboration with The Roundhouse Studios, London, the evening will show case the best work arising from Darwin inspired performance poetry workshops that will take place in schools and community centres between January 2009 and July 2009.
Re:Design
10 July 2009
Venue TBC, Cambridge
A dramatisation of the correspondence between Charles Darwin and Presbyterian minister and Harvard botanist Asa Gray, by Cambridge playwright Craig Baxter in collaboration with the Darwin Correspondence Project.
Cambridge Music Festival
8 – 29 November 2009
Cambridge
Held every three years, Cambridge's premier music festival will have a theme of Music and Evolution in 2009. It will include specially commissioned pieces inspired by Darwin, music composition projects exploring DNA with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, and an exploration of Darwin's writings about music.
Rambert Dance Company
Autumn 2009
A major new work marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species will feature choreography by Rambert’s artistic director Mark Baldwin to a new score by Julian Anderson. Co-commissioned by the Drummond Fund, it will make its London debut in autumn 2009.
Creation
Late 2009
Feature film
Husband and wife actors Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly will play Charles Darwin and his wife Emma Darwin in the upcoming feature Creation for Oscar-winning UK producer Jeremy Thomas.
The Darwin Poems
Venues TBC
Australian poet Emily Ballou paints a portrait in verse of Darwin’s inner and family life. Ballou journeyed from her home in the village of Wentworth Falls – where Darwin stopped during the Beagle’s short stay in Australia – to Down House in Kent, the archives in Cambridge and finally to County Monaghan in Ireland for a residency where she finished her poems.
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