When the North Sea flooded in 1953, it swept away lives and homes in the Netherlands, Belgium and the UK. Drawing from the tape-recorded memoir of a woman who lost everything to the flood, Shorelines is a music-theatre work exploring the aftermath and effects of the disaster, as well as mankind’s increasingly vexed relationship with the natural world. Composed by Oliver Coates (London-based winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Young Artist Award 2011) and performed by the Ragazze Quartet, Shorelines sees performers interact with ghostly recordings of themselves, while acting out the constantly shifting tug of war between the current and the remembered, between man and nature.

“Extraordinary, with Armstrong’s subtle direction bringing this terrible natural disaster back to life with subtlety and pathos alongside Oliver Coates’ beautiful score and the Ragazze Quartet’s masterful playing.”
The List (UK)

Credits:

Composer: Oliver Coates
Performed by: The Ragazze Quartet

Director: Josh Armstrong
Costume & Set Design: Christophe Coppens
Lighting Design: Nich Smith

A Cryptic / Ragzazze Quartet Co-Commission, in partnership with deSingel (Belgium) and Grand Theatre Groningen (Netherlands), produced by Cryptic.