De Profundis, a new musical by Paul Dale Vickers, based on the letter playwright Oscar Wilde wrote to his young lover, Bosie, from his prison cell in Reading jail in 1897, has won Leicester Square Theatre’s The New Musical Project, and will premiere in a six-week season in The Lounge at the venue from May 1–8 June. The piece, directed by Katie Pesskin, stars Alastair Brookshaw (Michael Riley is musical director).
Composer Paul Dale Vickers has taken Wilde’s 50,000-word letter (Latin translation ‘from the depths’) and set the words of one of English literature’s greatest wordsmiths to music to tell a story of love, loss and freedom.
“I first read De Profundis when I was at drama school over 20 years ago and was immediately drawn to the obvious sense of drama within the letter,” he says. “I created a short ‘non-musical’ version and then left it. When I came back to it, many years later, I realised that it had potential as a sung-through piece of theatre. I was always fascinated by Wilde’s ability to forgive, his intense love for Bosie and how he used writing as a form of therapy.
“At the beginning of the letter he is full of anger; he then agonises over Bosie’s nature and how he could have been complicit in Wilde’s downfall; then, towards the end of the letter, he offers staggeringly profound observations on the nature of forgiveness and, as he puts it, ‘the meaning of Sorrow and its beauty’. For this musical version I let the rhythm of the words themselves dictate the shape of the music and allowed the sentiment to drive the chords and melodies. Much of the lyrical content is taken directly from the letter with some invention required to tie ideas together. De Profundis is a piece of musical theatre in the conventional sense; however, I am experimenting with form in terms of structure as the piece is essentially an elaborate soliloquy.”
Vickers entered De Profundis in Leicester Square Theatre’s The New Musical Project and it is the inaugural winner. The New Musical Project was set up to to discover and nurture a new British musical that showed great writing talent. On offer was a process of mentoring and rehearsals that would ultimately lead to a fully staged show for the winner in the Lounge at Leicester Square Theatre. More than 100 musicals were received and considered. Six projects were chosen as finalists and showcases of them were produced and directed by Stuart Saint and Katie Pesskin. The project involved 27 actors, 18 panellists, 180 hours of rehearsal, and six public readings, which were attended by 300 members of the public.
Vickers originally trained as an actor and his credits include understudying and playing the role of Jean Valjean in the West End production of Les Misérables and James in the 2000 film adaptation of Jesus Christ Superstar. He then diversified and turned his hand to composing for theatre. He also has a MA in Contemporary Theatre Practice and is an experienced lecturer in musical theatre.
Brrokshaw received impressive reviews for his role as Leo Frank in the critically acclaimed production of the musical Parade at Southwark Playhouse. West End work includes Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre and Blood Brothers at the Phoenix, with him understudying Eddie. He was in Craig Revel Horwood’s revival of Hot Mikado at the Watermill Theatre.
Press performances for are De Profundis are on Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 May at 8.30pm, Thursday 8 and Friday 9 May at 7.00pm. This world premiere of a new musical is presented by Martin Witts and Lesley Ackland for London International Arts Ltd.
Readers may also be interested in:
The New Musical Project – finalists revealed – News
www.leicestersquaretheatre.com
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