A JOURNEY ROUND MY THEATRE

A Journey Round My Theatre is a recorded soundwalk around the public spaces of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. I was commissioned by KILN Ensemble to work with Olivia Winteringham to realise her concept for the piece.

Olivia’s grandfather, Graham Winteringham, was the architect of Birmingham REP, which he designed and built in 1971. The soundwalk takes the form of an architectural audio tour and the listener is accompanied by Graham talking about his design, some of the challenges he faced and recounting the odd anecdote. Olivia is there too, to provide directions. The piece is interspersed with field recordings from around the theatre including backstage areas, the main auditorium, rehearsal spaces and administration offices. These sounds, combined with Graham’s narrative, transport the listener inside the mind of the architect and into parts of the theatre not usually accessible to members of the public. The effect is of a gentle “poetic amble” with a slightly surreal, dream-like quality.

The soundwalk was mostly recorded binaurally in order to create a realistic spatial representation in sound when listened to on headphones.

The 40min soundwalk is available online as a free download or to stream on Soundcloud. You may enjoy listening in the comfort of your own home but the piece is best experienced on site, in the public foyer spaces of the REP. There is further information on the flyer, plus a helpful map to guide you around (links below – please note players are no longer available from the REP box office).

A Journey Round My Theatre was commissioned by Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 2015.