Stone Nest, London
Historical ensemble Figure and an excellent cast explore grief, compassion and hope through five women representing multiple generations
Performed by Figure, and the brainchild of the ensemble’s founder and musical director Frederick Waxman, Our Mother in some ways resists classification, though in essence it is a music theatre piece that takes Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater as its starting point for an exploration of the nature of grief. It’s not for purists. Pergolesi’s 1736 masterpiece is frequently considered contemplative and serene, and indeed some of it is. But in depicting Christ’s crucifixion, it is also, as Waxman puts it, “an evolving reflection on a mother watching her child die”, and a fierce anguish consequently offsets its moments of calm. Along with director Sophie Daneman, Waxman’s aim has been to reimagine it in terms of a communal exploration of bereavement and compassion, beyond its immediate theological context.
The piece itself has been expanded with a prelude and interludes by Welsh-born composer Alex Mills, in which rhythmic and melodic fragments from the original morph into passacaglias and threnodies that have a timeless directness and simplicity. Pergolesi’s two singers have become five, representing multiple generations of women, who shuttle the vocal lines between them, both within arias and ensembles: the great Emma Kirkby, now in her seventies, is the eldest; the youngest, Nadya Pickup, is in her teens.
